{"id":8588,"date":"2021-02-14T11:53:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T17:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/?p=8588"},"modified":"2021-04-02T14:20:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-02T14:20:19","slug":"rental-assistance-is-available-for-waxahachie-area-renters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/2021\/02\/14\/rental-assistance-is-available-for-waxahachie-area-renters\/","title":{"rendered":"Rental assistance is available for Waxahachie area renters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs offers rental assistance to Waxahachie tenants and landlords affected by COVID-19 downturn. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph\">If you live in Waxahachie and have gotten behind on your rent because of the COVID-19 economic downturn, or if you&#8217;re a landlord with tenants who&#8217;ve accumulated a hefty bill for back rent, there may be help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting February 15, 2021, the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tdhca.state.tx.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs<\/a> is offering financial relief for tenants and landlords in Waxahachie and throughout Ellis County who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through its Texas Rent Relief program, the department will distribute the $1.3 billion it&#8217;s received from the Federal government&#8217;s Emergency Rental Relief bill to eligible applicants to help with expenses related to rent and utilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Funds may be used to assist with the following costs incurred since March 13, 2020:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Past due, current and up to three months of expected rent costs<\/li><li>Past due, current or up to three months of expected utility and home energy expenses<\/li><li>After the initial three months of forward assistance, applicants can apply for three additional months of assistance if funds are still available<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Eligibility for tenants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To be elibible for funds, tenants must meet the following requirements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Households must have income at or below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), as defined by TDHCA.<\/li><li><strong>AND<\/strong>&nbsp;one or more of the tenant household members have:<ul><li>Qualified for unemployment benefits; OR<\/li><li>Attest in writing that due to or during the pandemic, they:<ul><li>Experienced a reduction in household income,<\/li><li>Incurred significant costs, or<\/li><li>Experienced financial hardship<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>AND<\/strong>&nbsp;Households must also demonstrate they:<ul><li>Are at risk of homelessness or housing instability by providing an eviction notice or past-due utility or rent notice; OR<\/li><li>Live in unsafe or unhealthy housing conditions<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>The unit applicants are renting must be their primary residence and be located within the State of Texas.<\/li><li>Any unpaid rent or utility bills applicants may apply for can go no further back than March 13, 2020.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Applications will be reviewed starting February 28, 2021 with priority given to applicants with the greatest need. A portion of the funds has already been allocated for eviction diversion for tenants who&#8217;ve already been sued by their landlords for eviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Landlord participation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Landlords with tenants who&#8217;ve gotten behind on their rent may also apply for funds on behalf of their tenants. Landlords may apply for the program through the landlord application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Applicants may apply for the funds starting February 15, 2021 at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/texasrentrelief.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/texasrentrelief.com\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Rent Relief program offers help for renters who&#8217;ve gotten behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Waxahachie rent assistance | Waxahachie 360","_seopress_titles_desc":"Texas Rent Relief program offers help for renters who&#039;ve gotten behind.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"Waxahachie area rent assistance available | Waxahachie 360","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"Texas Rent Relief program offers help for renters who&#039;ve gotten behind.","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"Waxahachie area rent assistance | Waxahachie 360","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"Texas Rent Relief program offers help for renters.","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-8588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","tag-covid-19","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/waxahachie360.com\/waxahachie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}