Name: Struggling to pay rent? San Diego to consider $61.9M relief fund
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Struggling to pay rent? San Diego to consider $61.9M relief fund

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Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement San Diego City Council is considering a nearly $62 million program to assist renters affected by COVID-19. The program, to be considered by the council Tuesday, would give up to $4,000 per household impacted financially or medically by the virus. Money for renters would come from funds already allocated to the city from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. The city received $248 million from the legislation, which can be used for fairly open-ended purposes to assist in recovery efforts. AdvertisementCouncilman Chris Ward, who proposed the creation of the program, said the money can be used for a variety of things but keeping people in their homes during the pandemic has to be a top goal. “Right now, helping renters that have lost their jobs and may lose homes because they can’t pay back rent, or are impacted moving forward, that is going to be one of our biggest priorities,” he said Monday. “We can’t position thousands of San Diegans to the brink of homelessness.”The city had already enacted to prevent renters from being thrown out if they can’t pay rent due to COVID-19. While that might help in the short term, it also means some of the hardest hit San Diegans will owe a lot of money when this is over.This would be the first attempt at direct loan relief locally, although other cities , and entire states like , are considering similar proposals. San Diego’s program would be for households that were making 60 percent or lower of the county’s area median income, about $92,700 a year, before the virus struck. That’s roughly $69,300 for a family of four. The city staff says the program could potentially assist up to 15,000 San Diego households. It is more likely that the city would need to prioritize the lowest income San Diegans because roughly 60,000 households earn 30 percent of the area median income.Much of the proposal could change once it reaches the city council Tuesday but, for now, it allows for a maximum one-time payment of $4,000. “While this falls short of the overall need, it can be a critical economic lifeline to both rental households and landlords during this time,” read the staff report. The proposal comes as activist groups in San Diego have organized around , whereby renters would not pay back what they owe. These groups say that low-income renters could not pay back a large sum of rent they owe if and when they go back to work. Ward’s proposal calls for money to be paid directly to landlords and be distributed by the San Diego Housing Commission. He said if a renter that qualifies owes less than $4,000, the leftover money could be put back into the fund for other renters. Renters not being able to make payments is one of the reasons some analysts predict rents to drop by the end of the year. The average rent in San Diego County was around $1,840 a month last week, said real estate tracker CoStar. Rent has only dropped about $15 so far, but CoStar predicts a by the end of the year. Ward said slowly dropping rents would not be enough to help many San Diegans. “That is not going to be able to solve all the rents already in arrears already across the community,” he said. Unemployment in San Diego County was , its highest ever recorded, said the state Employment Development Department. The San Diego Association of Governments estimates it is closer to 30 percent now. Gary London, real estate analyst with San Diego-based London Moeder Advisors, said it will surely help some renters but probably won’t make an impact. “It’s not a lot of money for not a lot of people,” he said. London said he would rather the money be used to put struggling renters up in the city’s hotels, which should have plenty of space because some are still closed or people aren’t as eager to travel. He said the tourism industry is hit so hard in San Diego that it would be probably better if they got the money instead of landlords, whose losses might be smaller than hotels. Businesses may also be struggling to pay rent, but this proposal does not cover that. Instead, the city has established the to help struggling companies and plans to add more money to the fund in June. The rent relief program would give priority to families with young children, seniors and those who are unemployed. San Diegans already receiving some type of housing assistance, such as Section 8 vouchers or living in subsided housing, would not be eligible for the program. If approved, the proposal stipulates families will have two weeks to apply and then will be selected by lottery. Up to 9 percent of funds will be used for administration and assistance for nonprofits helping with tenant counseling, outreach and education. Get Real Estate Insider on Fridays Real estate news, current interest rates, hot properties, buying and selling tips, sent to your inbox every other Saturday morning. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Show Comments Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement

Copyright © 2022, The San Diego Union-Tribune | | AdvertisementAdvertisement San Diego City Council is considering a nearly $62 million program to assist renters affected by COVID-19. The program, to be considered by the council Tuesday, would give up to $4,000 per household impacted financially or medically by the virus. Money for renters would come from funds already allocated to the city from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. The city received $248 million from the legislation, which can be used for fairly open-ended purposes to assist in recovery...

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Phillip Molnar

PhillipMolnar

The San Diego Union-Tribune, the region's leading news source since 1868. Follow our journalists, too: http://j.mp/UTstaff

Struggling to pay rent? San Diego to consider $61.9M relief fund

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