announcement today on rental assistance is well the Louisiana Housing
Corporation, in partnership with the state Louisiana Officer Community
Development has created the Louisiana Emergency Rental Assistance Program to
provide up to $24 million emergency rental assistance to the residents
facing financial hardship. As a result of Kobe 19 the program is available to
start taking applications today. This, too, will be administered on a first
come, first served basis, the initial round of funding to kick start the
program with $7 million which is immediately available. We anticipate
additional funding soon for the remainder of the additional $17 million
for the total of 24 1,000,000. We know that there are thousands of Louisiana
citizens who will likely need assistance in additions to the funds
that we have. And so we're going to continue to look for additional funding
out of CDB Allergic Community Development block grant allocations not
yet made to Louisiana but authorized under the previous Cares Act. But other
funding opportunities that may come down, including face four of the
legislation that Congress should take up the end of this month. Andi.
Hopefully there will be some funding there for rental assistance programs as
well.
This program is designed to help runners have experienced financial
hardship as a result of shutdowns, closures, layoffs, reduced working
hours are unpaid leave due to the pandemic so all of those individuals
are encouraged to apply. The program can also provide financial assistance.
Louisiana runners who are not current on the rent and or at imminent risk of
eviction due to Kobe in 19 eligible renters will have payments made on
their behalf to their landlords. So these payments do not go to the runners,
but they will go directly to the landlord's. The payment amount depends
upon income, household size and fair market rent prices. Um, and so what I
want to do is call up Keith Cunningham of the Louisiana Housing Corporation.
He's going to describe the program in more detail. We have from the office
community development platforms here today. He will answer any questions you
might have about the funding specific funding that has been made available
for this and what we're trying to get online going forward. But I'm gonna ask
Keith to come up now and tell you more about the program on and then on the
back side of his presentation. I will come up to conclude my remarks.
Thank you, Governor. Thank you for an opportunity to come and talk about this
very important program. Much needed program, the Louisiana Emergency Real
Assistance Program. This program is done and as the governor indicated in
conjunction with several partners, the main comport component of that is the
$7 million originally available for this program. The program will be
accessed through a 211 service. That 211 service that is currently in used
to provide information can be used to access information regarding this
program. There's also a website, Louisiana Rent help dot com, which will
also be an opportunity for individuals who are in need of role assistance to
go to that website and begin the application process. Currently, the
program is available to individuals who had 30% of below average median income,
and with that represents in the state of Louisiana is for how sort of 1
13,000 all the way up to 25,000 for households of four mawr.
And again, this program is designed to help those individuals who on or unable
to pay their rent due to impacts of cove it 19 the closures and the
isolation Self quarantine related to the Cove in 19 Pandemic. There are some
individuals who will not be able to participate in a program and I want to
be clear. Individuals who already receiving governmental real assistance
will not be applicable to this program. Individuals who are living in public
housing would not be applicable to this program, but individuals who are
experiencing difficulty and who do meet those qualifications will have an
opportunity on a first come first serve basis to receive that benefit. That
benefit will allow for three months of rental payment moving forward and three
months of back when a payment. As additional emergency solution grant
dollars are made available to the program again. This is an opportunity
for us to help those individuals who need assistance paying their rent. But
this is not an indication that an individual does not have to meet that
obligation if you are behind in your rent. If you do have issues with your
rental payment, please make sure you contact your landlord. Please make sure
you keep in contact with those individuals as you work through this
process, even as his program is offered. We don't want to indicate that there's
any assurance against anyone having to pay their rent. That burden still exist.
This opportunities to help those who have that need to meet that burden
in the last thing I want to make sure that we mentioned about the program is
that as it is on the first come first serve basis, we intend to allocate this
money in a judicious fashion very efficiently. But we also aware that $50
will be made available, and so we'll try to continue to operate this program
in a way to provide the assistance that individuals need throughout the state
governor. There's additional questions would be ready to answer, but
for now, that is the gist of the entirety of the program.