$750,000 will help pay Tarrant County renters’ deposits, moving costs. Who qualifies?
The Tarrant County commissioners court has approved $750,000 in federal funds to be used for a new program that will help residents pay for rental application fees, security deposits and “hard to house” fees.
Wayne Pollard, the director of the Tarrant County Housing Assistance Office, told the commissioners on Tuesday that the Lease Incentive Program will likely assist 300 to 400 families in the county.
“We feel that this will be very beneficial to the county because families are unable to find a location to live because they don’t have the funding for the simple security deposit to move into the unit,” Pollard said.
The program, which the commissioners approved unanimously Tuesday, will be open to county residents who do not live in the cities of Fort Worth or Arlington. Those cities received separate batches of federal rental assistance funds for their residents.
The newly approved program is one way that the county aims to spend the remainder of its federal rental funds. While other rental assistance programs — such as the statewide Texas Rent Relief — have spent all of their money, Tarrant County’s program has struggled to get funds out the door.
Kristen Camareno, the assistant county administrator, previously told the Star-Telegram that the county program has struggled because the state program also served Tarrant County residents. That setup essentially doubled up the available programs, with many county residents instead signing up for the state program, according to Camareno.
Over the course of two rounds of funding, the county will receive a total allocation of $50 million in federal rental assistance. By early February, according to county documents, the county had spent about $9.4 million, not counting an additional $15 million that the county has opted to send to the rental assistance programs in Arlington and Fort Worth.
That means there’s still millions on the table — money that the federal government could take back if the county doesn’t spend it.
Through more creative spending, such as the Lease Incentive Program, county staff hope to avoid that. The newly approved program has multiple pieces, all aimed at breaking down barriers to housing for county residents who have been affected by the pandemic. For eligible residents, the program will pay for:
- Rental application fees, up to $75 per adult in the household;
- Moving costs, up to $750 per household;
- A security deposit, up to the amount of one month’s rent, with a cap of $2,500 per household;
- “Hard to house” fees, up to $2,500 per household.
“Hard to house” fees are the added rental costs that landlords may impose if a tenant has a criminal record, limited credit history or a recent eviction.
In addition to the costs associated with a traditional rental unit, the new program will pay for a household’s hotel or motel fees up to $75 per day for a maximum of three months.
To be eligible, applicants must have been financially impacted by COVID-19, demonstrate that they’re at risk of housing instability and have a household income at or below 80% of the median income. For a single-person household, for example, the income cutoff is $45,300. for a four-person household, the cutoff is $64,650.
Applicants must also either live in Tarrant County — outside of Arlington and Fort Worth — or have stayed in a hotel or motel in the county for 14 or more consecutive days.
Camareno said on Tuesday that the county hopes to open applications for the program by early March.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 2:23 PM.
