August 9, 2021 – Sam Levin of The Guardian writes about rental assistance program rollout in California. Legislative Counsel Andrés Ramos is quoted.
“Getting 100% rental assistance approved was a really big victory,” said Andrés Ramos, legislative counsel at Public Advocates, a California civil rights organization.
In the largest state in the nation, which had a housing and homelessness crisis before the pandemic, the need was huge. More than 800,000 households are behind on rent, owing an average of $4,400 per household, according to a recent estimate. But there have been big gaps in getting the assistance out. As of last week, 132,000 people have submitted initial applications for relief through the state, 91,000 households have completed applications, and 20,000 of them, just 22%, have received financial aid. The state has doled out a total of $242m, which is about 23% of the funds requested so far. Officials are now receiving more than 7,000 new applications a week.
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