Rent assistance is back in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, with $22M in new funding
The rent, mortgage and utilities relief program in Mecklenburg will reopen March 1 after receiving an additional $22 million in funding, the nonprofit managing it announced Tuesday.
News of the program’s reopening through additional funds was shared with the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners Tuesday. It had closed in January after available funds were nearly exhausted, the Observer previously reported.
Nonprofit DreamKey Partners has administered the federal funding given to the city and county in several pandemic relief bills. Before this new allocation there was just $8.6 million left from county-provided funds and $5.6 million from the city, according to Erin Barbee, DreamKey’s chief strategy officer.
Barbee said the program is spending $700,000 per business day on average in assistance payments.
The new funds are coming from the state, as well as re-allocations by the U.S. Treasury Department from other municipalities that haven’t spent their funds quickly enough. Those redistributed funds will pass through Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
Where the need is
Last year, demand for rent relief spiked every time the moratorium was expected to — or did — go away, Barbee said. After several extensions by the federal government, U.S. Supreme Court struck down the protections in August 2021.
“Whatever is happening in the community, it tends to show itself in the trends of applications,” she said.
The 28262, 28269 and 28216 ZIP codes that stretch across the north side of the county have shown the most need for help.
“It looks just like the crescent and the wedge of our city and in our county,” she said.
That is consistent with an analysis by reporters with the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative showing where the most evictions occurred despite a federal moratorium protecting some renters.
Evictions in two those ZIP codes, 28262 and 28216 — along with 28212 in east Charlotte — occurred three times as often as the county average during a six-month period examined.
Huntersville had the most applications of the county’s towns, Barbee said, while Davidson had the fewest.
How to apply
Eligible applicants must have a pandemic-related income loss, illness or other financial hardship and have a household income up to 80% of the area median income. That is about $47,000 for a single person or $67,000 for a family of four.
Applicants must demonstrate risk of homeless or housing instability. Those with an eviction notice and scheduled court date are given highest priority, followed by those with the lowest incomes.
Program representatives are also stationed at the Mecklenburg County courthouse to determine if tenants qualify for the help to avoid eviction. Help opening a new application is available now for people attending their court date, even though the broader application program won’t reopen until March.
When it reopens, the program will be called RAMPCharMeck instead of RAMPCLT to better reflect eligibility across the county, program leaders said. For more information, visit rampclt.com.
This story was originally published February 9, 2022 at 9:55 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)