Discuss and take appropriate action on reconsidering the Emergency Rental Assistance policy approved by the Commissioners Court on February 8, 2021, expanding the months of assistance allowed from 6 months of rental and/or utility assistance to 12 months of assistance to include retroactive assistance as permitted under the U.S. Treasury regulations.  

On February 8, 2021, the Court approved an expenditure plan setting aside $2.8 million of the $4.7 million awarded for rental assistance. The Court also set aside the remaining funds for utility assistance and reserve funds to provide flexibility as needs arose.  The Court approved a plan to provide assistance not to exceed six months of rent and/or utility.  Since launching in mid-April, the PDNCF has conducted a wide-ranging marketing effort to promote the availability of this program to County residents to include outreach events, pop up activities at food pantry and vaccination sites, flyer distribution, media ad placements in both TV, print, radio, social, and billboard as well as coordinating a media conference recently inviting several members of the media. 

Despite these efforts demand for our program has been low.  This lack of demand is a trend we’re seeing among other Texas counties and nationwide.  In Texas, cities appear to be performing better than counties possibly because cities have higher concentration of population and urban centers where most renters live while counties are mostly rural and remote and rental units are scarce.  Additionally, in Texas the state launched their 12-month rent relief program in every Texas jurisdiction by early February, several months ahead of every other jurisdiction.  Since their launch, the state’s Rent Relief Program has already assisted 219 El Paso County households (outside the city limits) with over $1 million dollars in rent.  These challenges are making it difficult for counties including El Paso County to meet the Treasury’s expenditure threshold of 65% expended by September 30, 2021.  We are running out of time to meet that deliverable and to keep as much of these funds in our local community as possible, the Court is being asked to consider expanding the rental and utility assistance allowance from 6 months to 12 months allowing PDNCF to provide more assistance per household.  Part of this request if approved is to make this policy retroactive to provide the 12-month allowance to past clients who were denied assistance since April. 

Discuss and take appropriate action on reconsidering the Emergency Rental Assistance policy approved by the Commissioners Court on February 8, 2021, expanding the months of assistance allowed from 6 months of rental and/or utility assistance to 12 months of assistance to include retroactive assistance as permitted under the U.S. Treasury regulations.