King County sending out millions in rental assistance, but may not have enough

After concerns about a slow start, King County says it has made great progress in getting tens of millions of dollars in federal rental assistance to people in need.

Changes such as a simplified process and increased staffing have helped the program get from a walk to the run. Still, Leo Flor, the director of the Department of Community and Human Services, said additional improvements can be made.

“We have accelerated the program, … but need to do even more,” said Flor, speaking to the King County Council’s Committee of Community, Health, and Housing Services this week. “I’m the department director, responsible to oversee the program, I’m responsible for what was a slow start. And we’ve been able to leverage some Treasury guidance that really came out at the end of August and accelerate payments.”

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Since July, the county has gotten just over $50 million out — last week alone saw $8 million going out the door. This means the county is not at risk for having the money taken back from the feds.

“If you take a look at just 2021, we’re now at $63 million of total rent assistance paid,” Flor said.

The $50 million is part of a $123 million allotment from the federal government that the county is currently making its way through. In the coming months, another $177 million is expected to come in. The county expects that to last through the first half of next year.

The money goes out through the new Eviction Prevention and Rent Assistance Program, which stops an eviction in its tracks by paying the difference in rent, or goes out in rental assistance to stop an eviction from ever happening in the first place. Money is paid directly to tenants so they can make rent, or is given to landlords so they do not need to collect rent from financially struggling tenants.

About 6,000 tenants have received rental assistance so far; another 6,000 have been helped by their landlord getting funds in lieu of rent. Flor said about 72% of families helped so far have been BIPOC.

About two-thirds of applicants end up being eligible for assistance. Charts showed by Flor at the meeting showed that most applications come from South King County.

And the applications have not slowed, with 10,000 coming in over just the past five weeks. This has Flor concerned that even with the additional $177 million set to come in from the feds, there may not be enough to go around.

“It’s still hard to tell if we’re going to have enough funding to meet the amount of need that is in our community,” he said.

The county has paid an average of about $11,000 per tenant, which is about $3,000 higher than Flor said they had been counting on.

“The higher the average tenant payment is, the fewer tenants we’ll be able to serve with a fixed amount of money,” he said.

With the number of people in need and the amount they are needing much more than anticipated, Flor said it is possible that not everyone who qualifies will be able to get help. This may especially be the case if the ending of the eviction bridge next week spurs an increase in applications.

“Individual tenant payments are much higher than we thought they would be. … If that stays where it is, I believe we will have a shortfall in the thousands of households who have applied,” Flor said.

To qualify, you must live in King County, be able to show you are behind on rent, be financially impacted by COVID, and have a household income of less than 50% of the area median income. Visit the county’s website to apply as a tenant or as a landlord.

Councilmember and Committee Chair Reagan Dunn commended the Community and Human Services team for their hard work.

“Besides getting people vaccinated — which I think is the most important thing, getting people healthy, literally, physically healthy — this rental assistance is really the next most important thing where the rubber meets the road,” Dunn said.

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