Marion County still taking rental aid applications as state program winds down – Salem Reporter
The county has so far been the slowest in Oregon to distribute the federal funds it received, saying the delay was due to having to find a software company to track applications.
A Salem apartment with notice on the door about the end of the state’s eviction moratorium (Sap…….
The county has so far been the slowest in Oregon to distribute the federal funds it received, saying the delay was due to having to find a software company to track applications.
A Salem apartment with notice on the door about the end of the state’s eviction moratorium (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter)
A Wednesday deadline for Oregon renters to seek assistance through a state program means thousands of Marion County residents will instead have to apply through the county, which has been slow to give out its share of federal funds.
Oregon has two sets of federal funding to aid renters who lost income during the Covid pandemic. The Wednesday deadline applies to funding run through Oregon Housing and Community Services, which gave $15 million to the Mid-Willamette Community Action Agency to distribute in Marion and Polk counties.
The agency spent that money down weeks ago and sent out the last checks on Nov. 23. Since then, they have taken over the process for Yamhill, Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties, where local community action agencies have been much slower to distribute the funding, said Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency.
Jones said the agency provided rental assistance to 2,113 households in Marion and Polk counties, and around 4,000 households are on a waitlist.
The Wednesday deadline won’t impact a separate set of rental assistance funding Oregonians can still apply for that went to local governments including Marion County, which got about $10.4 million.
As of Oct. 31, the county had spent just 4% of its $10.4 million. That’s by far the least among all of the local jurisdictions that got federal funding, with the others ranging from 28% to 85% spent, according to federal Treasury Department data, which doesn’t yet show November figures.
County spokesperson Jon Heynen wrote in an email that as of Nov. 30, Marion County had spent about 8% of those funds, or $857,700. Of 844 households that applied, 368 have fully submitted paperwork and 182 have been paid.
Other local governments which received federal funding were the city of Portland and Clackamas, Lane, Multnomah and Washington counties.
County spokesperson Jon Heynen wrote in an email that Marion County’s deadline to spend down the $10.4 million is September 2022. The county has another $8.3 million from the federal government to spend on rental aid which doesn’t yet have a deadline attached.
“We will continue to accept applications at least until that point,” he said. “We still have funding available, and we are focused on outreach to get the word out to the community that these funds are available through our program.” </…….
