Ridgeland Apartments on Center Street Northeast on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
The state will briefly start taking new applications for rental assistance on Jan. 26 after not accepting them for eight weeks.
Oregon Housing and Community service stopped taking applications on Dec. 1 “due to dwindling funding and the need to make system improvements,” according to a news release.
The agency said it would reopen the portal for its rental assistance program for three to five weeks, depending on how much funding is available. They expect to have enough to pay between 6,700 and 9,300 applications, the news release said.
The U.S. Department of Treasury requires the agency to prioritize households with incomes less than half of the area’s median income and those with one or more people who have been unemployed for at least 90 days. They will also factor in household size, months behind on rent, people impacted by 2020 wildfires and whether the household is in an area recognized as having a high number of tenants at risk of housing instability and homelessness due to Covid.
Oregon Housing and Community Services will process applications they received before the December pause first. Renters who apply on or after Jan. 26 may get safe harbor protections preventing landlords from evicting them until their application is processed. “However, those tenants should expect a delay prior to processing and payment,” the news release said.
Oregonians can still apply for a separate set of funding that went to local governments including Marion County, which got about $10.4 million. As of Nov. 30, Marion County had spent about 9% of those funds, or $900,000, according to federal Treasury Department data released Jan. 7.
The news release said tenants facing immediate eviction should apply for rental assistance or contact a legal organization. Oregon Law Center’s Eviction Defense Project can be reached at 888-585-9638, or [email protected]. The Oregon State Bar is at 503-684-3763, or [email protected].
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
