Greensboro has ended its Emergency Rental Assistance Program.
The initiative sprang out of the COVID pandemic to help those in need as housing costs soared and people lost their jobs. The city has spent over $19 million in federal funds to support more than 3,000 households since the program began in 2021.
While the conditions under which it started may have ended, the program is concluding at a time when the state continues to face a housing affordability crisis.
WFDD’s DJ Simmons recently spoke with Greensboro Supportive Housing Analyst Liz Alverson on the program’s impact.
Interview Highlights
"I think that I've seen it remain relatively steady since COVID. I mean, we might have seen a few declines in the need, but largely, folks are still struggling from the economic fallout of COVID, and again, it's largely impacting these low-income families that were already struggling to pay rent anyway. So the need has remained pretty steady."
"The assistance that's provided right now is much more targeted to even more vulnerable populations, simply because they're the ones that are the most impacted by the fallout of COVID and just the increase in prices across the board and just basic needs. So we still do provide it in that way. I foresee that we'll continue to provide some sort of rental assistance as we move forward."
"There is still a need for a lot of these individuals and these families that need much more support services beyond just the financial assistance, because there are so many different barriers and challenges that they're facing that just giving them financial assistance is not good enough. They need, you know, connection to physical health care and mental health care and services like that."