COVID-19-related Housing Assistance

The act provides eviction assistance, rental assistance, residential mortgage assistance, and guidance on other housing assistance to households facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In determining how to distribute rental assistance, the division of housing in the department of local affairs (division) is required to prioritize:

• Homeless families with dependents or other children enrolled in preschool, elementary, or secondary schools;
• Medicaid clients in nursing homes who are able to live in their communities with in-home services;
• Family unification and related services;
• Homeless or disabled veterans;
• Low-income households with an income at or below one hundred percent of the area median income;
• Survivors of domestic violence;
• People experiencing homelessness who are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 according to the federal centers for disease control; and
• Entities that provide direct services to youth experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.

In determining how to distribute residential mortgage assistance, the division is required to prioritize households with an income at or below 100% of the area median income.

From money given to the state in the federal "Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act":

• $350,000 is appropriated to the judicial department for use by the eviction legal defense grant program; and
• $19,650,000 is transferred from the care subfund in the general fund to the housing development grant fund administered by the division.
  (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)