A vital rental assistance program is riddled with problems as Pa. prepares to resume evictions

If landlords take the money, they can’t file for eviction until at least 60 days after the last payment. As a result, many decided the program wasn’t worth it.

In Philadelphia, for instance, two-thirds of the more than 10,000 applications submitted so far cannot move forward, because they come from tenants whose landlords will not participate.

Even when landlords do agree to take part, a convoluted application process and burdensome paperwork requirements mean that many applications arrive incomplete and can take weeks to finalize. The money is being paid out so slowly that some local officials worry they won’t have enough applications by the Sept. 30 deadline to use up all the funding allocated.

“The challenges that were built into the program administratively, from the legislation, have made it really hard to drive out the level of assistance we had initially expected,” said Bryce Maretzki, director of policy and planning at the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

The failures of the rental assistance program took on new urgency Monday when Wolf — in a surprise move — said he does not have the legal authority to extend the eviction ban for a third time. That means the current moratorium will expire Aug. 31.

Housing advocates warn that the end of the ban will bring a wave of evictions that will jeopardize public health, displace families at the start of a new school year, and risk leaving thousands of people homeless, with communities of color hit the hardest.

Almost 400,000 households in Pennsylvania were not able to pay rent during the third week of July, data from a Census Bureau survey shows. An estimated 15% of tenants had “no confidence” in their ability to pay next month’s rent. Some tenants are already receiving letters warning them they will face eviction come September.

On Monday, Wolf said the rental assistance program has “serious defects” and urged lawmakers to address them immediately. The legislature has been largely absent from Harrisburg since mid-July and isn’t expected to fully reconvene until September.

“It hasn’t been working,” said Sen. Vincent Hughes (D., Philadelphia), who helped write the legislation that created the program. “Some people have gotten help, a lot of folks have not, and so we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and try to come up with something better.”

Staff at the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which is overseeing the program, knew there were problems almost immediately.

Just three days after the program began taking applications, Executive Director Robin Wiessmann noted in a memo, sent to legislative leaders in both chambers, that the underlying law “significantly limits timely, effective implementation … and precludes the legislatively approved assistance from having the impact that is intended.”

In Lancaster County, about 65% of applicants pay more than $750 in rent each month, and landlords refusing to take part is “an everyday problem,” said Matthew Sternberg, executive director of the county redevelopment authority, which is processing applications locally.

“There’s a possibility that a good amount of funding will end up getting left on the table unless some of these issues are fixed,” he said.

Another problem: The funding formula doesn’t take into account household size, putting families with children at a disadvantage.

Dianne Washington lives in Lancaster with her two children, ages 10 and 4. She’s waiting to hear about her application. Even with a three-bedroom apartment, she only qualifies for $750 in assistance — the same amount she would receive if she lived alone in a smaller apartment.

After the virus struck, her hours as a cook at a nursing home were cut and the hotel where she worked part-time as a bartender closed, she said. Washington said she has been paying what she can each month but keeps racking up late fees that make it difficult to catch up.

She lets other bills slide to focus on keeping up with the rent, she said, “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Overwhelmed with paperwork, left in limbo

The lack of landlord participation isn’t the only problem with the rental assistance program. Tenants also have to contend with a complicated application process, onerous documentation requirements, and the inevitable bureaucratic hiccups of a program rolled out in a hurry.

In an effort to make sure that assistance payments went to those most in need, the legislation contains strict eligibility criteria. To qualify, renters must have filed for unemployment since March 1, or have lost more than 30% of their income — documented with pay stubs and tax returns. They also can’t earn more than the median income for their county.

“Getting all the paperwork, making sure that folks qualify, just the constant back-and-forth takes up a great deal of time,” said Jessica Hajek-Bates, a director at Blueprints, the local group processing applications in Washington County.

The organization has received almost 200 applications so far. But only about 30% of those have been approved or denied, she said. Most are still in administrative limbo, as staff work with applicants to verify their eligibility, collect the right documents, and make sure all the details match up.

In Philadelphia, the combination of low landlord participation and the challenge of standing up a new program so quickly has created serious delays. Almost two months in, no money has actually been paid out.

The first payments should go out within the next two weeks, said Gregory Heller, senior vice president of community development at the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation. That means the money may not start flowing until after the eviction ban has lifted. The agency hopes landlords who have applications pending will hold off on filing for eviction, Heller said.

Tiesha Edwards, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia, is counting on the assistance payments to be able to stay in her apartment. Edwards, 35, said she fell behind on rent after she lost her job as a home health aide in April. She gave up a part-time job as a Lyft driver, scared of bringing the virus home to her two-year-old.

Edwards said she applied for the program in early July, the day after it launched, and has been waiting to hear something for almost two months.

“Sometimes I just feel like shutting down from everybody,” she said. “I don’t know when there’s ever going to be a light at the end of the tunnel.”