Pulaski County JPs advance housing aid plan

$221,556 to assist 37 applicants if Quorum Court approves

Pulaski County justices of the peace have preliminarily approved $221,556 in federal grant funds to provide rental assistance for 37 individuals and families.

The money comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's filtered through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.

If approved by the full Pulaski County Quorum Court in May, that money will help pay the rent for about 37 individuals and families who are currently on the county's housing voucher program's waiting list, Community Services Director Fredrick Love said. They'll get assistance for a year or two, depending on how long the money lasts, he said.

The program is called tenant-based rental assistance. It's basically a "stopgap" for people waiting to get a housing voucher, commonly referred to as Section 8, Love said.

For the Pulaski County Housing Agency, the wait ing list for Section 8 housing is at least 100 people long. In April, more than 250 people showed up just for a chance to apply to be on the list.

Exactly how many people will get the tenant-based rental assistance depends on their individual circumstances, Love said. For example, if the next 37 people on the waiting list are all gainfully employed, the average monthly payment from the housing agency will be lower, thus the grant money will run out slower, he said.

"Some of these people are not homeless. They may even have an apartment, but they are applying for additional assistance. ... They're just part of the working poor," Love said.

Pulaski County residents receiving rental assistance pay a minimum of $50 a month toward their rent, even if they're unemployed, Love said.

Ben Carson, U.S. secretary of the federal housing agency, recently revealed a package of proposals that, in part, would triple the minimum rent for some of the poorest Americans in public housing from $50 a month to $150 a month.

That change "would really impact people" in Pulaski County, Love said.

"It would be hard to come up with the $150," he added.

Over the past few months, county leadership has drawn attention to the dire need for additional public housing. Basically, the housing agency is trying to tether people to multiple programs so that they don't recede to where they were before receiving assistance, Love said.

"We're trying to address homelessness in a more systematic way."

Metro on 05/10/2018

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