With COVID still raging, Sacramento sets $31.7 million fund to help renters. How to apply

The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday approved a $31.7 million fund to help residents pay their rent as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy.

Applications for the rental assistance are expected to be available starting Feb. 25 and can be found on the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency website.

In order to be eligible for the assistance, applicants must live in a household in the city of Sacramento in which someone has lost their job, experienced a reduction in income or experienced financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Renters must also demonstrate “a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability,” according to a city staff report.

Priority will be given to households that earn up to 50% of the area median income, or $38,850 for a family of three, and to those who have been unemployed for at least 90 days.

A blog post by Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s office said the amount of the assistance will not be capped for families.

“This is great news for a lot of Sacramento families,” the mayor said in the post.

According to the city staff report, state research shows 1.4 million people are out of work in California and renters owed $400 million in unpaid rent as of December.

“The nation is bracing for an eviction crisis of historic magnitude,” the staff report read. “Studies show that evictions affect Black and Latinx renters at higher rates than white renters with Black women being evicted at the highest rates.”