NEWS RELEASE
BOULDER COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND HUMAN SERVICES
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As funding from the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) runs out in early 2023 in Boulder County, the county Housing Helpline team is prioritizing remaining support for those who have not yet received rental assistance and are encouraging current applicants to ensure they have submitted all needed information. The wind-down marks the end of a three year period during which the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services’ Housing Helpline has distributed nearly $14 million in federal, state, and local rental assistance to nearly 2,000 households in the community to help counteract the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The public health emergency has been devastating for so many in our community, especially those who were already struggling,” said Boulder County Housing and Human Services Director Susan Caskey. “There are federal emergency rental assistance funds remaining, and we encourage anyone who has had a financial hardship during or due to the COVID-19 pandemic to apply now if they have not already.”
With the wind-down of federal ERAP funding, the “Neighborly” online application portal will close on Jan. 14, 2023, and no applications will be taken after that day. BCDHHS staff urge anyone who has begun an application but not yet finished it to do so soon. Information on ERAP and the application process is available at www.BoCoRentAssistance.org.
“We know the $14 million we have been able to deliver to renters and landlords across Boulder County has made a difference, and even as we are nearing the end of the federal rental assistance funding, we are exploring other ways to continue some of this support,” said Susana Lopez-Baker, Deputy Director of Housing for Boulder County Housing and Human Services. “Once the federal public health emergency ends, additional supports such as expanded food assistance and health coverage will go away, and this will impact even more of our community members. We are working closely with organizations all over our community to identify needs, collect data, and explore additional funding and partnerships to help more struggling renters avoid eviction and begin to recover financially.”
Eviction prevention has also been a significant need in the community. When the eviction moratorium ended in 2020, BCDHHS utilized funds from the property-tax-supported Human Services Safety Net initiative to extend landlord-tenant mediation services provided by the City of Boulder to community members countywide. The program continues to partner with mediation programs in the cities of Boulder and Longmont to prioritize households facing imminent eviction and work closely with both tenants and landlords, and to date nearly 950 evictions have been avoided through this effort.
The Boulder County Housing Helpline was launched in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened across the U.S. and in Colorado and combined with the already high cost of housing in Boulder County to further pressure renters with reduced income, higher healthcare costs, and other stresses. Over the past three years, the Boulder County Housing Helpline team has delivered a range of assistance depending on the needs of the household, however for the majority the average has been about two months of financial support. In many cases the HHL team has been able to provide rental assistance two months into the future and/or cover past due rent from previous months for struggling renters to help them catch up on other bills and stabilize their budgets.
Spanish speaking families and individuals make up about 21% of callers to the Housing Helpline and 13% of households served, significantly higher than the 8% of families countywide who report speaking Spanish at home (American Community Survey data).
“People of color in Boulder County have been hit especially hard by this pandemic,” said Boulder County Commissioner Claire Levy. “As leaders in this community, we are committed to continuing to break down the systemic and race-based barriers our community members regularly experience. Decent and affordable housing is a core part of the stability needed to live a healthy, happy life, and we see emergency rental assistance as an essential tool for helping people in our community who have been marginalized realize the benefits of stable housing.”
Boulder County Housing and Human Services has long-standing partnerships with the community’s three family resource centers (FRCs) - EFAA in Boulder, Sister Carmen Community Center in Lafayette, and OUR Center in Longmont – and has collaborated with the FRCs to help ensure the rental assistance need they are seeing can be supported as much as possible by the Housing Helpline and ERAP. Through the work of the FRCs, ERAP support quickly ramped up to fund staggering increases in rental assistance over pre-pandemic levels being delivered to community members: from a 600% increase for EFAA to a 2,000% increase for Sister Carmen and 2,500% for OUR Center.
More about the Housing Helpline (HHL) team and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP):
- The HHL team has provided rental assistance to an average of 178 households per month in 2022.
- To improve access for our most vulnerable neighbors, the small HHL team of six also completed an average of 77 self-scheduled phone appointments per month.
- Below is the breakdown of ERAP assistance provided from March 2020 through October 2022:
Community Applications Received: Assistance Provided:
Longmont - 1338 $5,030,204
Boulder - 642 $4,500,980
Lafayette - 230 $1,886, 279
Louisville - 72 $637,850
Superior - 40 $477,878
Nederland - 15 $119,383
Erie - 7 $75,965
Lyons - 5 $31,604
About Boulder County Housing and Human Services
The Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services (BCDHHS) is a 500-person integrated services organization that focuses on connecting individuals and multiple generations of families with a full spectrum of supports. Over an average 12 months during typical times, BCDHHS connects more than 90,000 people with a wide range of wrap-around services, including food, housing, health coverage, childcare, safety, education and skill building, parenting supports, and much more. Visit www.BoulderCountyHHS.org and follow Boulder County Housing and Human Services via social media (www.Facebook.com/BCDHHS and www.Twitter.com/bouldercohhs) to learn more about BCDHHS’ prevention-based wrap-around community supports and services.
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