It may be the last local allotment of COVID relief from U.S. Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance program, which started in 2021. said Angela Rahman, Kettering community development manager.
“We’re continually happy that we’re able to fill this need,” Rahman said. “We’re really getting kind of worried as the program winds down” about what is “going to happen to these people that are unable to find or maintain housing that is affordable to them. Because the need is there and pretty soon the funding will not be.”
Kettering has already awarded $4.7 million in communities within the Kettering Municipal Court’s jurisdiction, Rahman said.
Eviction filings in that court totaled 65 in January but dropped to 46 in February – 12 fewer than the same month in 2022 - after last year’s cases surpassed the pre-COVID 2019 totals by the end of November, court records show.
Attempts to obtain updated county distribution totals Monday were unsuccessful. Officials said in January that Kettering was second among its partner entities for the $21 million it had doled out. Homefull topped the list at that time with $6.7 million, according to the county.
The Kettering Stay Put program froze requests Jan. 1, but has been accepting them for nearly a month on a limited basis, according to the city.
The program is taking applications for those who:
•Have an eviction court date;
•Are new applicants who have not received any emergency rental assistance before from Kettering or other organizations, such as Homefull, the Salvation Army, Goodwill, Catholic Social Services and the Miami Valley Community Action Partnership.
Kettering’s program has about 100 applications to be processed, Rahman said.
That’s “much better than the almost 400 we had been dealing with prior to when we shut down,” she added. “But we are still seeing lots and lots of evictions and still lots and lots of need.”
Last week, the MVCAP began taking rental assistance applications again after earlier freezing them.
That program works independently from the one operated by the county, Rahman said. The county receives funds directly through the federal government while the MVCAP’s money is distributed by the state, she added.
Kettering’s program approved funds for 1,167 recipients through Feb. 24, more than 300 of whom have been directly saved from eviction, Rahman has said.
To qualify, recipients must have been impacted by COVID through job loss, layoffs or personal circumstances, officials have said.
Maximum annual income requirements are also involved. They range from $47,150 for a one-person household to $88,850 for a family of eight, Kettering records show.
For application information, go to https://www.ketteringoh.org/stayput/.
TOP ZIP CODES
Kettering’s Stay Put program has awarded funds to more than 1,160 recipients through Feb. 24. The following are the ZIP codes in which the most funds were distributed.
ZIP code Recipients Total
•45420 175 $711,725
•45429 168 $713,481
•45417 160 $615,071
•45439 125 $515,001
•45440 118 $456,947
Source: City of Kettering.
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