Several Alabama cities and counties are getting extra federal dollars to help people struggling with rent and utility payments.
Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, will receive $25 million from the funds originally given to the Alabama Department of Housing and Finance Authority to dole out to residents. The City of Huntsville has received $4.58 million, also reallocated from the state, for Huntsville Housing Helps, a program administered by the Catholic Center of Concern.
William Barnes, president of the Birmingham Urban League, which is helping to distribute the aid in Jefferson County, said he anticipates being able to assist about 4,000 more households with rent and utilities with this pot of funding.
“These are much needed funds. We continue to see people who are still rebounding from the pandemic,” said Barnes.
The Emergency Rental Assistance program, funded by the federal government, is reallocating $690 million nationwide from cities, counties and states that were unable to distribute the money to programs that have successfully helped residents with rent and utility payments during COVID-19.
Jefferson County was touted by the U.S. Treasury in a press release as a promising program for its “strong eviction prevention and housing stability infrastructure.”
Alabama’s statewide program, administered by the Alabama Department of Housing and Finance Administration through a Mississippi-based contractor Horne LLP, initially faced significant delays in distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 rental assistance leading to the state returning millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury.
Many renters complained that the program and its requirements were difficult to navigate, and state officials said that applications were often incomplete or apparently fraudulent, lowering the amount of money they were able to distribute. According to the department, the state’s program has helped more than 41,000 households from 61 counties with $200 million since March of 2021 when the program began.
Alabama Housing and Finance Administration Multifamily Administrator David Young said redistributing some of the remaining funds to local programs that are seeing high demand allows the state’s allocated money to be put to use.
“By working with Jefferson County (and the City of Huntsville) to transfer funds from the ERA’s primarily rural program to a local, urban program with unanticipated demand, we are ensuring that Alabama keeps its federal funds in state.”
Jefferson County and the City of Huntsville are among eight local sites that received funding from the U.S. Treasury for rental assistance programs, including Baldwin County, Mobile County, Montgomery County, The City of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa County and Madison County.
Rent and utilities can be covered for up to 18 months, including back payments, under the program. Residents of Jefferson County must show proof of income but are no longer required to document a pandemic-related hardship, said Barnes. Residents of Birmingham must apply through the city, he said.
“We are excited and glad that we now have additional funds to continue to help people stay warm,” said Barnes, “But we also know we’re going to be heading into the spring and summer months and we believe this funding will also help us on that side with making sure people have power and can stay cool if we have hot summers.”