Last updated on March 01, 2021
The City of Orlando Received Federal Funds to Help Orlando Residents in Rental Assistance
March 1, 2021– ORLANDO, FL – The United States Department of the Treasury recently allocated $8.6 million in federal funds to help City of Orlando residents who are in need of rental assistance. City of Orlando staff is currently working on establishing the qualifying criteria, program guidelines, building the back-end technology infrastructure and creating the application portal for residents to apply.
Prior to the application period opening to residents, the qualifying criteria and program guidelines will be considered and approved by the Orlando City Council. The Orlando City Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting is Monday, March 22, 2021 and staff hopes to have the program considered at that meeting.
Per the Treasury’s requirements for this program, to be eligible, a household must include:
one or more individuals within the household qualified for unemployment benefits or experienced a reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or experienced other financial hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the COVID-19 outbreak;
one or more individuals within the household demonstrate a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability; and
the household has a household income at or below 80% of area median income which for a family of four is $58,160 in Orlando.
As a reminder for residents who may be delinquent on their rent, the CDC has released an Order that may stop landlords from evicting some tenants. However, the order does not automatically protect residents who are delinquent on their rent. Residents must meet the eligibility criteria and deliver a signed CDC declaration form to their landlord to be protected. For more information, visit Orange County’s Frequently Asked Questions related to Eviction Protections and Housing Assistance here.
Unlike previous rounds of COVID-19 federal stimulus funds which were only allocated to counties or cities with a population of 500,000 or more, the current round allocated funds directly to cities with a population of 200,000 or more. Due to the City of Orlando receiving its own allocation of funds to support city residents during this round of federal stimulus, City of Orlando residents will not be eligible to apply for Orange County’s rental assistance program which opens on March 1, 2021.
City residents who would like to receive updates on the city’s rental assistance program and when the application period will open should visit orlando.gov/assistance.
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Samantha HolstenPublic Information Officer
Email samantha.holsten@orlando.gov Phone407.246.4275
Cassandra Lafser
Press Secretary
Email cassandra.lafser@orlando.gov
Phone 407.246.2182