Agenda - 09-02-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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14 1 Travis Myren said the households served reflects the disporportionality of the pandemic. 2 He resumed the PowerPoint presentation: 3 4 Slide #27 Emergency Housing Assistance — Amount of Assistance by Location and Purpose EHA by Jurisdiction EHA by Purpose w.w °S;s; ^..,t NGF.COUNT) rr 5 6 7 Commissioner Dorosin asked if there are conditions imposed on landlords when rent is 8 covered with these funds, or any incentivizing to forgive past due rent. 9 Erika Brandt, Interim Housing Director, said the statewide Hope program, which the 10 department administered in the fall, had a lot of strings attached for receiving funding, including 11 not evicting tenants for three months after the last payment. She said these conditions 12 discouraged landlord participation, so her Department opted not to have too many strings 13 attached for these funds. She said staff is in contact with the landlords negotiating over the 14 amounts that will be paid, so often late fees will be waived and the funds can be used to the 15 maximum extent, allowing multiple months of future rent can be covered, which is effective at 16 keeping people housed. 17 Commissioner Dorosin said it would be good to have a bulleted summary of efforts and 18 successes, because there can be some public pressure applied that would encourage landlords 19 to be more cooperative. 20 Chair Price asked if evictions will be tracked once the moratorium is lifted. 21 Travis Myren said tracking would come through the Eviction Diversion Program (EDP) 22 as part of Human Rights and Relations Department. He said EDP and Emergency Housing 23 work together, and any legal work is done in the Human Rights and Relations Department. 24 Chair Price asked if staff is looking into how to continue to supplement payments for 25 people who have not been able to secure gainful employment after the emergency declaration 26 is lifted. 27 Travis Myren said ARPA funds will be available for emergency housing assistance. He 28 said as part of the process for allocating those funds, one of the recommendations will be to put 29 additional funds/years for emergency housing assistance because the need is not going to go 30 away. 31 Chair Price agreed, and said landlords are going to want any money owed to them. 32 Bonnie Hammersley said once moratoriums are lifted, the real work is going to start. 33 She said staff will work in tandem with the emergency housing assistance to make sure people 34 are taken care of. She said the Housing Helpline does record calls and what the calls are for. 35 She said if there is a summons, it immediately goes to EDP, but if the call is just about funds the 36 Housing Department will handle it. She said staff anticipates more work will come after the 37 lifting of some of the restrictions, and having ARPA funds will help with that. 38 Chair Price said there may be an increase in home repair needs too.