Cobb County plans to replenish funds earmarked for tenants struggling to pay rent and in jeopardy of being evicted.
The county’s Board of Commissioners will consider allocating $7.2 million as part of a second batch of federal Emergency Rental Assistance during its meeting Tuesday night.
Cobb’s first batch came in February when the board set aside nearly $22.9 million in federal aid dollars to assist tenants with up to 12 months of back rent and utilities. More than half of that money has already found its way into the hands of renters.
Cobb County picked five nonprofits — Sweetwater Mission, MUST Ministries, the Center for Family Resources, Star-C and Cobb HomeSavers — to administer and disburse the money.
The organizations have been taking applications since April. By Sept. 15, they’d distributed little over $15.2 million, or 66.6% of the county’s first appropriation of rental assistance, according to Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt.
If approved Tuesday, Cobb will use the same five service providers to hand out the new pot of money, which comes from a $21.6 billion Emergency Rental Assistance package that Congress included in the American Rescue Plan Act.
Cavitt said the new rental assistance dollars are separate from the $147.6 million allocated to Cobb County earlier this year as part of ARPA.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury is setting regulations for both aid programs.
The original $22.9 million in rental relief must be distributed by Sept. 30, 2022, according to Treasury Department guidelines. Cobb plans to draw down on that reserve — about $7.6 million of the first batch remains — before distributing the second batch of federal funding.
The county will have until September 2025 to dole out the latest rental assistance money, which can cover up to 18 months of financial assistance for households impacted by COVID-19.
The county plans to allocate another $1.27 million to each of the five nonprofits to assist struggling residents.
Applicants must be able to prove a pandemic related hardship or show that they could fall into homelessness without financial assistance.
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Aug. 26 blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium, lifting the temporary ban that CDC had imposed during the pandemic.
According to Cobb County officials, there has not been an uptick in evictions since the Supreme Court ruling.
“The nonprofits say there continues to be a demand but not as great as earlier in the program,” Cavitt said. “The Supreme Court’s ruling did not seem to result in a flurry of calls. They believe that is because our Magistrate Court has pointed people to the program and has been able to keep the number of cases down.”
Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting begins at 7 p.m. It will be held inside the board’s meeting chambers on the second floor of the Cobb County Government Building, 100 Cherokee St., Building A, in Marietta.
Face masks are required and social distancing protocols will limit seating inside the meeting room to 35 people. The meeting can be livestreamed at cobbcounty.org/CobbTV.
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