Travis County will shut down its rent relief program amid a spike in demand
Despite a surge in demand for emergency rental relief in the last two weeks, Travis County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to shut down the county's rent relief program.
County Executive Sheri Fleming told commissioners the county has been waiting for roughly $5 million in an initial round of federal funding for the program. The county has seen a crush of applications since the City of Austin and the state closed their rent relief programs.
Fleming said nearly 600 people applied for the program in the last two weeks alone. As it stands, she said, the program needs at least $4 million to cover the current pool of applicants.
"The number of applications that we have seen ... has created this concern," she said, adding that the program often sees a spike in rent relief requests in December, even before the pandemic. "There's also the added factor that the eviction moratorium, without further action, comes to an end in December."
Read more: https://www.kut.org/covid-19/2021-11-30/travis-county-will-shut-down-its-rent-relief-program-amid-a-spike-in-demand