Tenants' need for Covid rental aid slams agencies in Detroit and Wayne County

Wayne County tenant-assistance agencies are struggling with a glut of applications for federal Covid Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) to avoid eviction.

(Image: Wayne Metro Community Action Agency website)

"The agencies in Wayne County have only been able to process 26 percent of the applications they've received," WXYZ reports.

Kelly Rose, who oversees CERA [for the state], says dispersing the funds in Wayne County and Detroit is taking longer than usual, mostly because of the volume of applications. ... "The process isn't moving fast enough. We do need to make it work faster," said Rose. ...

"About 80% of our counties are processing applications in less than five weeks. But we do have a couple counties where there's a higher application volume, like Wayne County that's having about 38% of our applications, where those processing times are longer."

Tenants' advocate Abayomi Azikiwe: "This is totally unacceptable." (Photo: Facebook)

The station also quotes Abayomi Azikiwe of Moratorium NOW, a Detroit coalition aimed at stopping foreclosures, evictions and utility shutoffs:

"[Tenants] are being told that the funds are not available, or the agencies who are assigned to disperse the funds do not have adequate staff to carry out the implementation of the program. We feel this is totally unacceptable."

The Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, one organization processing CERA rental aid applications (link below), has added staff and expanded hours because it averages 30,000 calls a month about rental assistance, says Mia Harnos, chief strategy and innovation officer.

The nonprofit got $100 million from the federal program "to stave off evictions and to make our property owners and landlords whole," she tells WXYZ.

"In July, we distributed $10 million. In August, we distributed $20 million. ...

"We recognize the dire situation, we recognize the need. We hear and see it every day. We are a six -day-a-week now operation," said Harnos.

Harnos says they are distributing about $7,900 per household for rent assistance, and that they have staved off about 11,000 evictions in Wayne County. In Detroit, she said that number is about 6,000.