More than $100 million sitting unspent in program meant to help pay rent, utility bills A North Carolina program meant to help people financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic has only disbursed a quarter of the $160 million set aside for the program. Some people who qualify for the grant can t use it, leaving them open to eviction after the moratorium is lifted. (Source: Gray News) By Nick Ochsner | February 8, 2021 at 12:17 PM EST - Updated February 8 at 6:53 PM
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – A program designed to quickly pay rent and utility bills for people financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic has struggled to get money out the door.
The Fayetteville Observer
After being named one of the top 7 cities in the nation to have a rent increase, Fayetteville rents slightly decreased in January, data from Apartment List shows.
At the end of January, Fayetteville’s median rent was $820 for a one-bedroom and $978 for a two-bedroom, the Apartment List report states.
That’s about a .2% decrease from the previous month’s data, but a 10.1% increase compared to last year.
Apartment List uses median rent statistics for recent movers taken from the Census Bureau American Community Survey.
“Throughout the past year, rent increases have been occurring not just in the city of Fayetteville, but across the entire state,” said Chris Salviati, a housing economist for Apartment List.
New HOPE Program changes aimed at quicker payments, more landlord participation
It took two months, but the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency unveiled improvements to the state s pandemic rental and utility assistance program. Author: Nate Morabito Updated: 8:29 PM EST January 29, 2021
CHARLOTTE, N.C. It took almost two months, but North Carolina has finally overhauled its overwhelmed HOPE Program with changes that should result in struggling families receiving their critical rent and utility help quicker and should entice more landlords to accept the government money.
Today, only 19,377 people are actually in the program s payment stage, according to the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. Those people account for less than half of the 42,000 who applied for help through the state
Randi Berardi is one of the many left waiting. Every day I wake up and that is the first thing that is on my mind, the Charlotte woman said. I don t have anybody to fall back on immediately.
Berardi, laid off from her job in October, said she is behind on rent. While she said her property manager has remained very cooperative, the longer she waits, the more stressed she becomes. I am getting nervous now that it is past the end of December into January, she said. We have just been kind of left in the dark. No communication. Nobody to talk to or get any answers from.
WFAE
More than 130 new staff members have been hired by North Carolina s Office of Recovery and Resiliency to help process an overwhelming number of applications for rent and utility assistance through the state s HOPE program.
The hires were made in November and were first reported by the Charlotte Business Journal. The extra staff was needed to help process applications from more than 42,000 households a number that took the program s leaders by surprise. We were expecting a large demand for this program, but getting over 42,000 eligible applications in a three week period was really quite astounding, said Haley Pfeiffer Haynes with the state Office of Recovery and Resiliency. We just needed to make sure that we could process these applications in a timely way that could really serve people.