Alaska ahead of the curve on rent relief
Using federal pandemic relief funds, the state has paid more than $179,000 toward past-due and future rent and utility bills in Haines, part of $85.2 million paid out on behalf of tenants across Alaska since early April.
Of the 110 Haines households that applied for the aid program, which closed to applications in March, payments have gone out for 61, with 32 still in processing and two ineligible, Stacy Barnes, public affairs director at the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., said this week.
Priority was given to catching up on delinquent rent, which accounted for almost $33,900 of the money paid so far on behalf of Haines tenants. About $145,700 has been paid toward future rent, which the housing agency will send to landlords in three-month increments as it verifies the applicant’s continued financial eligibility.
About $173 has gone to pay off delinquent utility accounts, as of the agency’s July 30 report.
“This program has been significant in aiding people who are severely delinquent in their rent,” said local commercial real estate owner Debra Schnabel. “For me as a landlord, it’s been a very positive experience.”
Chris Thorgesen owns multiple rental properties in Haines, and said while there has been some lag time in the program, it’s been mostly reliable in the long run.
“From my experience, there are less people behind on rent now than there were before the Wuhan virus shutdowns,” Thorgesen said.
Renter Larissa Barrett, who lost a part-time job because of the pandemic last year, said she received rental assistance for June, July and August, but has yet to receive back pay for April and May.
“We have given renters the opportunity to ask for past due rent at their re-certification,” Barnes said. “This will allow them to make sure that any previous balance owed that was not addressed in the first round of payments gets paid.”
Many states are not as far along as Alaska in sending out the rental assistance. A Treasury Department report said just $3 billion of the $25 billion in aid authorized by Congress in December and March had been delivered to landlords and tenants as of June 30.
“Alaska is leading the country with payment going directly to landlords and utility companies,” AHFC said in a prepared statement Monday.
Nationwide, about 8.2 million adults were behind on their rent or mortgage as of July 5, a Census Bureau survey showed. Country-wide data cited by the New York Times indicates roughly 13% of Haines renters are behind on rent.
Rent and utility assistance in Ketchikan as of July 30 totaled $2.868 million, and $335,000 in Petersburg.
Payments are issued directly to landlords and utilities on behalf of tenants who have fallen behind or are having trouble covering the bills due to job or income loss amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The housing agency, which is administering the program in Alaska, reported July 30 that 134 workers are reviewing and processing the more than 30,000 applications received from around the state, assisted by five nonprofit organizations and 15 tribal entities.
As of Monday, the agency had contacted every applicant.
Almost 26,000 applicants met the program’s income eligibility limit of one half the area’s median income. In Wrangell, that cut-off is about $28,500 a year.
The applicants represent about one-third of all renter households in the state, the agency said.
“We’ve worked hard to understand the guidance coming from the federal government, develop a program that would benefit both tenants and landlords, and hire contractors and temporary staff that would allow us to administer rent assistance as quickly as possible,” Bryan Butcher, executive director of the Alaska Housing Finance Corp., said in a statement on the agency’s website.
AHFC is handling $242 million in federal aid funding for renter relief granted to the state, the municipality of Anchorage and Alaska tribes.
Payments have gone out on behalf of almost 18,000 households as of Monday, with about 2,000 still under review and about 5,500 ineligible or withdrawn. The federal program allows the aid to continue for up to 12 months, depending on each state’s availability of funds.
Though the $25 billion nationwide assistance program is open only to renters, another round of federal pandemic relief aid includes assistance for homeowners. The next round also includes more money for renters.
Under the American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden in March, Alaska expects to receive an additional $125 million for rental assistance and $50 million for mortgage relief, Barnes said. The Legislature directed that money to AHFC to manage.
Applicants under the earlier round of rental assistance will not need to reapply. The agency also expects to accept first-time applicants, but does not know when that will start, Barnes said.
The agency is waiting for U.S. Treasury Department guidance to develop its mortgage assistance program.
A federal freeze on most renter evictions enacted last year expired Saturday. The moratorium, put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, protected millions of tenants nationwide, many of whom lost jobs during the pandemic and had fallen months behind on their rent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.