She told her landlord that her family was “struggling and couldn’t pay rent on time,” but was told that it is due on time and that partial payments would not be accepted. Her complex had been waiving late fees for rent, but she said that is no longer the case.
Hawkins noted that it is easier for landlords to hang on to current renters than having to kick them out, eat the money that they were owed in back rent and find new people to rent the vacant space.īut Cathy Fisette said she’s done everything right and still worries that she will not be able to avoid eviction.Īrizona Housing Fund hopes to move people from streets into homesįurloughed from her job in March due to the pandemic, and with her unemployment benefits winding down, the Tempe resident is in a tough position. Lamar Hawkins, an attorney at Guidant Law Firm in Tempe, says landlords could move quickly once the moratorium expires, which is why he encouraged tenants to have open communication with their landlords. To be eligible, renters have to show that they have lost income because of COVID-19, such as through the loss of a job, or that they have a medical reason, such as being quarantined or having to care for a sick relative. Tenants can get assistance for past-due rent, but have to reapply for every month that they go further into debt to their landlord. By this week, the numbers had risen to $1.85 million of $10.4 million requested.
Total assistance paid out at that time was a little more than $1.7 million, out of $9.9 million requested. Johnsen says that ADOH has recently changed a number of policies to the program to make the funding more flexible and has eased the supporting documentation requirements.Įven if they can get approved, however, the assistance program is not likely to clean the slate for renters.Īt the end of July, the COVID-19 rental assistance program’s average monthly assistance was just under $900 for renters who had successfully applied and been approved. ADOH statistics showed that 8,019 of the submitted applications as of Aug. She said in an email that one of the problems those agencies are running up against is that almost half of the applications are incomplete due to missing documentation, which can slow down the process. Mutual aid groups band together to help those in need during COVID-19 By this week, three weeks after Ducey announced the extension, the number of approved applications had risen to 1,380, but the total number of applications had also risen, to 20,313, an approval rate that was just under 6.8%.Īpplications for the Rental Eviction Prevention Assistance program are being processed by 11 community action agencies around the state, according to Janelle Johnsen, communications director for the Arizona Department of Housing. Those numbers have improved, but only marginally. Just 1,266 out of 18,784 applications for rental assistance had been approved at the time, an approval rate of 6.7%. When Ducey announced the extension of the first residential eviction moratorium, state efforts to provide assistance to renters were lagging. “After August 21, renters will need to provide their landlord or property owner a copy of their completed pending application for rental assistance through a state, city, county or nonprofit program” in order to defer eviction, the order says. 21 to notify their landlord in writing of a COVID-19 hardship and request a payment plan. In his July 16 executive order, Ducey said that renters who wanted to defer a pending eviction have until Aug. 31 could come as soon as later this month if they don’t act. Doug Ducey extended the state moratorium on residential evictions to Oct.
WASHINGTON – Arizona renters may have breathed a sigh of relief last month when Gov.
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