Texas Rent Relief is closing its portal. DFW judges say they had to find out on their own.
When the Texas Rent Relief Program decided to close its application portal, officials did not notify the courts that are tasked with deciding eviction cases and informing tenants and landlords about the state funding, according to local judges.
Several North Texas justices of the peace, who oversee eviction proceedings, said they had not received any official communication from the statewide program by mid-day Friday, a handful of hours before the portal was scheduled to close to new applicants.
“It’s irresponsible not to notify the courts that handle these cases that that program was stopping at 5 p.m. today,” said Judge Al Cercone, of Dallas County’s Precinct 3-1 Justice Court, on Friday.
Kristina Tirloni — spokesperson for the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs, which oversees the statewide rent relief program — said in an email Friday that the department notified some state lawmakers about the impending application closure on Wednesday afternoon, and sent out a press release Wednesday evening. The department sent notifications to other stakeholders and updated its website and the program’s website throughout Wednesday and Thursday, she said.
When asked specifically about whether the department had notified justice courts of the imminent change, Tirloni said she did not have any additional information to provide.
The Texas Rent Relief Program, which is funded by the federal government, initially launched as a pilot program last fall. In February, the program went statewide, with the aim to provide emergency rental assistance to landlords whose tenants have been impacted by the pandemic.
At least one lawmaker had expected the program to have enough funds to run through spring 2022, according to The Texas Tribune. But the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs announced this week that the application portal would close at the end of the week. In its Wednesday press release, the department said the closure was “due to the total requests for assistance now exceeding all Texas Rent Relief funds available.”
As of Friday, the program had already distributed more than $1.2 billion in funds, out of the total federal funding of more than $1.9 billion, according to the program’s online dashboard. The program will continue to process existing applications, and will give applicants 21 days to finish their applications if they are started before 5 p.m. Friday, according to the release.
The portal closure has obvious impacts for tenants and landlords still seeking assistance.
But it also affects justices of the peace, who are tasked with providing information about the Texas Eviction Diversion Program — which is funded with Texas Rent Relief dollars — to tenants and landlords who appear in their courts. The justices of the peace are also tasked with deciding eviction cases where rent relief is involved.
Despite their prominent role in evictions and rental assistance programs, justices of the peace in North Texas said they were not formally notified that the Texas Rent Relief Program was closing its applications.
Cercone, of Dallas County, said he instead found about the upcoming closure when he checked the program’s website.
Judge Sergio De Leon, of Tarrant County’s Precinct 5 Justice Court, said he heard about the portal closure from his court manager.
Judge Ralph Swearingin, of Tarrant County’s Precinct 1 Justice Court, said he heard about the program closure from another judge, who learned about it from a TV news report.
While Swearingin said that the Texas Rent Relief Program has helped many families, he also said the program has struggled with communication.
“If this one judge hadn’t seen this and passed it on to us, I could be next week telling people about a program that doesn’t even exist,” Swearingin said.
“It’s difficult to make a program work without adequate, timely communication.”
The statewide rent relief program is not the only resource available to tenants and landlords still seeking assistance. Some local rental assistance programs — including the programs operated by Tarrant County, the city of Fort Worth and the city of Arlington — have funds available to distribute. To figure out which program they might be eligible for, Tarrant County residents can visit getrenthelp.com or call 817-850-7940 and select option 1.
For residents of other areas, the U.S. Consumer Finance Bureau provides a search tool that can be accessed at consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus/mortgage-and-housing-assistance.
This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 4:04 PM.
