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COVID-19

BY JUAN PABLO GARNHAMTexas Tribune

Texas is using $171 mil-lion in federal coronavi-rus relief funds to provide financial and legal aid to renters facing eviction, Gov. Greg Abbott an-nounced.

The vast majority of that money — $167 million — will go toward rental as-sistance. Another $4.2 mil-lion will be used to fund legal services for Texans.

Abbott’s office also said in a press release that the state is creating the Texas Eviction Di-version Program, which will coordinate state agencies, local govern-ments and nonprofits to help renters avoid evic-tions and catch up with missed rent payments.

It wasn’t immediate-ly clear how the money would be divvied up, but Texas Department of Housing and Communi-ty Affairs spokesperson Kristina Tirloni explained that cities, counties and nonprofits will manage the application process. Although the U.S. Depart-ment of Housing and Ur-

ban Development needs to approve the funding, the state estimates that the money will be available by the winter holidays in communities with exist-ing rental assistance pro-grams, and by the start of 2021 in the rest of Texas.

“The Texas Eviction Diversion Program is crucial to our state’s re-sponse to COVID-19, and it will help many families recover from the impact of the pandemic without the looming threat of evic-tion,” Abbott said in the release. “This innovative partnership, coupled with the renters assistance pro-vided through CARES Act funding, will strengthen our economic recovery ef-forts and provide a lifeline to renters and property owners alike.”

Since the pandemic be-gan in March, more than 3.5 million Texans have filed for unemployment, and staying current on rent has become a main concern of Texans who have lost their jobs or had their hours cut. Ac-cording to a survey done in late August by the U.S. Census Bureau, 36.8 per-

cent of Texans said they were somewhat or very likely to face eviction or foreclosure in the next two months. Data from the Princeton-based research center The Eviction Lab shows that eviction filings have increased in some of Texas’ largest cities since a statewide moratorium ended in mid-May.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a new nation-wide eviction moratorium earlier this month that will last until Dec. 31.

Since then, the Texas Supreme Court ordered every eviction citation to include information about the moratorium, as well as the form that tenants are required to fill to seek pro-tection from being evicted.

Christina Rosales, deputy director of the advocacy organization Texas Housers, said that Abbott’s new program was “unprecedented” and a “good start,” but more needs to be done to avoid an increase in evictions in January, when the CDC moratorium expires.

“In Texas, tenants can be evicted because

of nonpayment of rent. The thing that will keep them housed is rent as-sistance,” Rosales said. “Legal assistance, right to counsel and eviction diversion will help man-age the crisis, but if we want to steer our way out of the crisis, we will need more rental relief.”

Texas’ most populated

cities and counties have created similar rent-assis-tance programs, mostly using CARES Act fund-ing, too. These have ex-perienced high levels of demand. San Antonio offered residents $50.3 million for rent and legal assistance, which city offi-cials expected to be tapped by the end of this month.

Since then, the city has added $24.1 million to the program, which is expect-ed to last until mid-De-cember. In Houston, the first round of a $15 million rental assistance program was drained in 90 minutes. Since then, the city an-nounced a new $19 million program.

Texas will spend $171 million in federal coronavirus relief funds in order to help renters avoid evictions

Emree Weaver/The Texas Tribune

An apartment complex near downtown Waco. Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he was dedicating $171 million in federal coronavirus relief money to helping renters avoid evictions.