Philadelphia will pay rents for residents affected by the pandemic

To mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on many families, the City of Philadelphia implemented a rental assistance program.

Philly Mayor Jim Kenney announced the program, and the city is accepting applications from Tuesday, May 12th through Saturday, May 16th.

On Tuesday morning, it was launched the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program which will pay the rent of about 3,000 households.

“We know that unprecedented job losses have placed financial pressure on both renters and landlords,” Kenney said during his announcement of Philadelphia’s rent assistance program. “This program will make rent payments for people who have lost income because of COVID-19 and is expected to keep at least 3,000 families in their homes.”

The program “aims to help people who have lost income because of COVID-19 pay their rent,” the City’s website says. “It makes payments directly to your landlord.”

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Payments cannot exceed $2,500 over three months. Renters must have their rent paid up before April and landlords agree to not evicting program recipients for at least six months after the city payments end.

Gregory Heller, Senior Vice President of Community Investment for the Philadelphia Housing Development Cooperation pointed out the significance of this support for small business people. “A lot of landlords in Philly are small business people themselves, can’t afford to miss several months of income, so for them, this program is going to be very helpful.”

There are varying income thresholds depending on the number of people living in a house. A family of four cannot exceed $48,300 annually.

No one needs to have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to qualify, the city said. People living in public housing do not qualify.

The Philadelphia Housing Development Cooperation will randomly select applicants. It is estimated that around 40,000 renters qualify for the assistance.

The funding of the program is provided from the federal CARES Act.