Program that has helped 3,000 Lexington households avoid eviction gets millions from KY
More money is coming to help Fayette County renters avoid eviction and help pay past-due utility bills.
Gov. Andy Beshear announced Tuesday that state officials will give the city an additional $11.7 million to augment its eviction prevention programs.
“We stand here on the two-year anniversary of the first case (of COVID-19) in Lexington,” Beshear said at a press conference at the Lexington city government center. “The great lesson of COVID is that everybody counts.”
Beshear touted Kentucky and Lexington’s fast-rebounding economies — unemployment in Fayette County is at historic lows. But the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic has hurt some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Inflation is going up. The war in Ukraine will also drive up prices, most notably gas prices, he said.
“This city and all of its leaders have been phenomenal partners in this battle against COVID,” Beshear, a Lexington native, said. “I’m so proud of this town and I’m proud of Mayor Gorton for her leadership.”
Mayor Linda Gorton said the money will help the city continue the housing stabilization program.
“The pandemic has touched every single corner of our economy,” Gorton said. “Our economy is growing. One of the tools that has helped us recover is the housing stabilization program.”
The city has allocated $31 million dollars to either pay past-due rents or to help renters with utility payments through federal coronavirus relief money over the past two years. That included $11.7 million from the state, Beshear said.
Tuesday’s announcement is the second $11.7 million the state has given to Lexington from state eviction prevention funds, Beshear said.
Beshear also is expected to announce Tuesday additional money from the state for Louisville’s eviction prevention programs.
“That has served over 3,500 individual households and benefited more than 700 unique landlords,” said Charlie Lanter, the city’s new commissioner of housing advocacy and community development.
That’s roughly 1 out 18 rental households.
“That has prevented an unknown number of evictions. The eviction filings have only recently returned to pre-pandemic levels,” Lanter said in an interview prior to Tuesday’s press conference. “But the actual judgments, the filings resulting in someone being put out, those numbers are well below pre-pandemic levels.”
Lexington, Louisville and the state received eviction prevention funding from the federal government. In total, the three programs have paid out more than $119 million in rental assistance to 25,789 renters, Beshear said.
“The average for the program has been $4,639 per household,” he said.
With the state’s influx of coronavirus relief money, the city anticipates the eviction prevention program will have funds until the end of 2022, depending on demand.
The program has not been without its critics. Last year, some Lexington landlords complained that it was taking too long for tenants to access the money due to the complicated rules attached to the program. There were similar complaints throughout the country.
Lanter said Tuesday those wait times and backlog have been slashed. Instead of waiting months, landlords now wait weeks, he said.
The administration of Lexington’s eviction prevention funds has moved several times over the past two years. The Community Action Council took over the program in November. It has hired 30 additional staff to manage the program, said Sharon Price, executive director of the council.
The city recently received recognition from a national housing group for being one of the best administrators of the federal eviction prevention program dollars.
Landlords and tenants interested in applying for the program should go to covid19renterhelp.org
