With eviction moratorium in jeopardy, Florida launches pandemic rental assistance program

Evictions get the green light to continue in Escambia County, Image via AP.

Florida is launching its rental assistance program through the Department of Children and Families days after a judge ruled the federal eviction moratorium unconstitutional.

DCF Secretary Shevaun Harris announced Monday that her office launched OUR Florida, the emergency rental assistance program to benefit those affected by the pandemic’s economic impact. The U.S. Treasury Department gave Florida $1.4 billion in emergency rental assistance funds Gov. Ron DeSantis announced earlier this year, $800 million of which the state will administer directly.

“I would like to thank Gov. DeSantis for his leadership as we continue to work together to help our families become economically self-sufficient,” Harris said. “Low-income families are on the verge of homelessness, and this program will provide a safety net to keep families stable and in their homes.”

OUR Florida, short for Opportunities for Utilities and Rental Assistance, will prioritize renters with household incomes at or below 50% of a city or county’s area median income and families who have experienced unemployment within the past 90 days. However, the program is available to certain renters whose incomes are at or below 80% of the median level.

Floridians must be at risk of losing their home or be living in unstable or unhealthy conditions to qualify. They must also have qualified for unemployment, experienced a loss of income, incurred significant costs or faced financial hardship because of the pandemic.

DCF partnered with Tidal Basin, a disaster and recovery consulting firm, to administer the program.

The Treasury Department directly gave cities and counties with populations greater than 200,000 the remaining $529 million of the $1.4 billion distribution.

In October, DeSantis allowed a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures to lapse after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created its own eviction moratorium. However, a federal judge on Wednesday ruled those protections, set to expire June 30, unconstitutional. For now, the moratorium remains after an appeal from the Justice Department.

Without the moratorium, advocates say, the only thing standing between many tenants and eviction is the nearly $50 billion allocated by Congress for rental assistance. Advocates say very few tenants have received any of the money, and they fear it won’t get to the neediest people in time if the moratorium is scrapped.

Visit OURFlorida.com for details on qualifying.

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Content from The Associated Press was used in this post.