Lewis County has allocated more funding to the Salvation Army and the Equity Institute to provide rental assistance to county residents who are at risk of eviction.
The rent assistance funding is part of the state Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), which is offering assistance for renters and homeowners who have fallen behind on their rent, mortgage or utility payments through June 2023.
The goal of the program is to reduce evictions and keep people in stable housing.
Given the housing shortage in Lewis County, spending funds to keep people housed is more efficient than spending them on caseworkers to search for housing that isn’t there, said Lewis County Public Health & Social Services Director JP Anderson.
Anderson called housing stock a “limiting factor” for progress in the community and added that “stabilization” is a major goal of the fund providers, like Salvation Army, that he works with. For example, providers make sure the housing matches the lifestyle of renters is part of the program, he said.
The Salvation Army handles applications and distribution of aid for English speakers, while the Equity Institute handles the process for Spanish speakers.
Just under 800 households have received rental assistance through the Salvation Army since ERAP 2.0 began on Oct. 1, according to Salvation Army Captain Gin Pack.
Funding to help with rent and utility payments is available through the Salvation Army and the Equity Institute through June 2023.
When asked if there was a possibility of the state Department of Commerce extending assistance past June 2023, Justia Madrigal, Lewis County Public Health & Social Services’ contracts coordinator, said, “As of right now, I think what they’re doing is kind of looking at the data that they’ve compiled between all of the emergency rental assistance programs since the beginning of the pandemic. They are looking at this, and, of course, any challenges that we have faced. So I know that there are conversations about something that might be a more permanent, ongoing project, but nothing has been announced versus concrete as of yet.”
The current iteration of ERAP, called ERAP 2.0, was established in October 2021 and is funded by the state Department of Commerce. At that time, the county had ended a contract with the state Treasury Rent Assistance Program (T-RAP), which is run by the Department of Commerce and funded with both state and federal funds.
“When we did that, we had left a little bit of money on the table in our ERAP allocation, through Commerce,” said Madrigal, “And so what they did was go through and do some budgeting, closures, finalize our expenditures and then see what we had left on the table.”
Commerce recently finished that budgeting process and reallocated the funding from the T-RAP program to the county’s ERAP 2.0 program.
The county subcontracts the Salvation Army and the Equity Institute to distribute those funds.
The Lewis County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) allocated an additional $2,731,038 Tuesday to the Salvation Army’s existing contract, which runs from Oct. 1, 2021 to June 30, 2023.
The additional funding brings the county’s contract with the Salvation Army to $8,585,591 in all.
The BOCC allocated an additional $42,744 to the Equity Institute’s existing contract, bringing that total to $367,998 for the period of Oct. 1, 2021 to June 30, 2023.
ERAP assistance is available to Lewis County residents who are at or below 80% of the median income for Lewis County and have at least one month of rent unpaid or partially paid.
The median family income for Lewis County in 2021 was $77,500, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
More information on applying for rental assistance can be found online at www.centralia.salvationarmy.org/centralias/rental-assistance. Residents can also call 360-736-4339 for more information.
Information for Spanish-speaking residents, as well as other resources, can also be found online at the Equity Institute at www.tuhogarlc.com.
