Cooper urges NC tenants behind on rent and utilities due to COVID to apply for aid
Gov. Roy Cooper urged North Carolina residents behind on rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic to take advantage of available funds as the state reopens the application period for the statewide bill assistance program.
“Though a lot of the economic fog caused by this pandemic is lifting, many families across the country are struggling,” Cooper said Wednesday at a press conference.
The Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions program, or HOPE, program provides rental and utility assistance to tenants in 88 of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
This phase of the HOPE program started accepting applications on May 18 with about $800 million from the federal government in rental assistance as part of Congress’ COVID-19 stimulus bills in December and March.
“We know that more people need help,” said Laura Hogshead, chief operating officer of the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, which administers the HOPE program. She joined Cooper at Wednesday’s news conference.
“We look forward to helping even more North Carolina families through this second phase of the HOPE program,” Hogshead said.
Tenants can apply for rent and utility assistance by going to hope.nc.gov or by calling 888-9ASK-HOPE.
Renters in the other 12 counties in the state must apply to county agencies as those counties met the population threshold to receive rent relief funding directly from the federal government. Those counties are Wake, Durham, Johnston, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Cumberland, Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Mecklenburg, New Hanover and Union.
Five tribal governments within the state operate their own rental assistance programs as well. Those tribes are Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Coharie Tribe, Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina and Waccamaw-Siouan Tribe.
Wake and Durham have started their own rental aid programs with this funding in the past several weeks. Information on those programs also can be found at hope.nc.gov.
Prior to the current phase of the HOPE program, $133 million went to 36,000 households accepted into the program.
Since the second phase has started, over 8,000 people have applied and $9.5 million in assistance has been awarded.
Of that, 924 assistance payments totaling $1.1 million have been mailed to landlords and utility providers, Cooper said.
Tenants who applied in the first phase can reapply in the second phase.
How the HOPE program works
To qualify for the HOPE program, renters must have lost income, have previously qualified for unemployment benefits or experienced some other financial hardship due to the pandemic.
The program is also limited to households that earn 50% or below of the area median income and to those that have missed at least one rent payment or have faced eviction or homelessness since April 1, 2020.
Hogshead said that renters behind on utility payments are considered at risk of eviction.
For those accepted into the program, rental payments will be provided for up to 12 months, including a maximum of nine months in unpaid past rent. The amount paid will be the fair market rate for a two-bedroom apartment, as defined by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The program also provides payments for past unpaid utility bills, including up to $510 in electricity; $135 for natural gas, propane or heating oil; $105 for water; and up to $120 for wastewater.
The rental payments will go directly to the landlord and they must use them only for rent. Landlords will also be required to waive late fees, penalties and legal fees.
They also cannot move to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent for at least 60 days after the rental assistance payment period ends.
Both the tenant and landlord must agree to these conditions before rental assistance payments are given.
“We need landlords to sign the paperwork. We need landlords to participate in order to get the payment that they are due from those tenants that have fallen behind on rent,” Hogshead said.
Rental assistance restarts after several months
The HOPE program, which initially began in October of last year, stopped accepting applications in November — after over 42,000 people had applied — due to depleted funding, The News & Observer reported.
Though more rental assistance for North Carolina was approved in December, the HOPE program didn’t start accepting applications again until May.
Hogshead told The N&O in March that the delay was due in part to a bill passed in the state legislature that imposed caps in rental funding for each county and lowered administrative funding, limiting NCORR’s resources.
Since then, the General Assembly has adjusted their county cap restriction, Hogshead told The N&O in a phone interview Wednesday after the press conference.
There are now caps on 16 regions of North Carolina, as defined by the N.C. Association of Regional Councils of Governments, Hogshead said.
She said this modified system allows the program to operate more efficiently while ensuring equitable distribution of rental aid.
“We are taking a look at how applications are coming in from those regions and where the money is flowing, so that we make sure that we’re equitable across the state,” Hogshead said. “Instead of tracking it 100 different ways, we’re tracking 16.”
The current nationwide eviction moratorium, which protects tenants from eviction due to nonpayment, is set to expire at the end of June.
Under Cooper’s statewide moratorium, anyone who has applied and is awaiting payments from the HOPE program is protected from eviction due to nonpayment, Hogshead said.
As of September, the most recent data available, at least 300,000 households in North Carolina were behind on rent, according to a report from the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
Hogshead said at the press conference that the state needs to get more rental aid to tenants and landlords so that the eviction moratorium isn’t necessary.
“We need to make sure as many people as possible get into the program and get that check,” Hogshead said.
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Cooper urges NC tenants behind on rent and utilities due to COVID to apply for aid."