AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin and the Housing Authority of the City of Austin (HACA) announced Monday that the 2021 Relief of Emergency Needs for Tenants (RENT) Assistance Program allocated all available $35 million of local and federal rental relief funding.
The funds were given to more than 8,298 Austin households facing financial pressures as a result of the global pandemic, city officials said in a press release.
“Paying your rent may have been hard even before the pandemic, and the conditions over the past year quickly escalated the need for help,” said Housing and Planning Assistant Director Cupid Alexander. “With HACA’s partnership, we were able to react quickly to a growing need and create a program that distributed over $65 million of rental assistance to over 17,000 Austin families – helping them avoid eviction and stay safe during the pandemic.”
In October, the city council also voted to allocate $6.7 million of rental assistance from the City's general reserve funds. The City said it is now looking for a new funding source since both federal and local funds available for rental assistance have been sent.
For Austin residents in need of rent assistance due to financial struggles from the pandemic, you can sign up for the City's RENT program online here or by calling 211.
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