Marion County’s IndyRent program has begun accepting applications for up to 12 months of rental assistance, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration announced Wednesday. The long-awaited move adds nine months of help to the program, which previously maxed out at three months.
“I’m very proud of our program, and I’m grateful for what the city and its partners have been able to accomplish,” Hogsett said at a monthly news conference Wednesday. “But the need is still great.”
The change has been in the works for several months. This fall, Indianapolis landed $91.4 million in rental assistance funds originally allocated to Indiana—which wasn’t on track to meet federal deadlines for assigning and spending the money. Local officials began discussions with the state over the summer, according to Jeff Bennett, deputy mayor of community development.
Now, Indianapolis is starting to tap into those funds.
“One of the biggest benefits of those funds from the state is that it enables us to provide the full 12 months of assistance that Congress authorized in CARES Act II,” Bennett told reporters Wednesday.
Beginning last Friday, new applicants can request up to 12 months of help for rent going back to April 1, 2020, or for upcoming rent payments, he said. The network of not-for-profits administering the program has also started contacting thousands of previous recipients to invite them to apply for additional support. For example, a household with two months of rent help under its belt would be able to ask for another 10.
As of Tuesday, IndyRent has pushed out about $70.7 million in rent payments to landlords of 30,000-plus households seeking rental assistance, according to Bennett. The program is averaging about $5.5 million in payments a month.
IndyRent also aims to have staff at the township small claims courts where eviction cases are heard, Bennett said, to help tenants facing eviction apply for help. Eventually, the courts could have processing locations for the program, he said.
Already, “tenant advocates” for renters with no legal representation are stationed in seven of the nine township sites, excluding Franklin and Perry townships, as part of a yearlong pilot.
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That’s great but will people be able to access these funds before they’re evicted in November and/or December?
Will the people pay the landlords or put the money in their pockets, like the last rounds of assistance?
It has always gone directly to the landlords…
You sounds very uneducated about this subject…
Source: am a landlord who actually went through this process
This is great but do they have to show proof of a job, proof of actively searching for a job, disability and/or aging in order to apply and receive rental assistance benefits?
No probably not. That goes against the ethos of the Democratic Party! 😂
Vincent, NO they do not have to have a job, or show any proof of such. The application is a simple form with Name, number in household, current rent, and current landlord………thats it. Just hold your hand out, and if the landlord agrees, poof, you no longer have to pay your rent…….the tax “payers” will do it for you.
How about we send the money back to the federal government, because tax “payers” are the ones footing this bill. I am a landlord, and will NOT allow more then 1 month of IndyRent, due to the restrictions on landlords when they accept the funds. More landlords then not are refusing the funds, due to the same reason. I can’t wait to see what all these people who are milking the system, and getting all these handouts do, when it all shuts down. After 35 years as a property manager, I am retiring and getting out…….. I don’t want to have a gun to my head by government, and their moving towards controlling anything and everything a landlord can or can’t do.
As we hard working tax “payers” continue to fund the lazy, it’ll just keep getting worse. A generation of lazy “free money” takers is showing the next generation how to do it. This isn’t about a pandemic! There are THOUSANDS of jobs available! Go to work!!!
IBJ, can you ask Pothole and the Democrats: why ,in a huge labor shortage, and record high wages, his voters still can’t pay rent?
Chuck, there is no labor shortage. Read the monthly labor statistics put out by the state…
There is 4% unemployment, which is exactly where you want it.
Businesses need to compete in the free market for laborers and pay better wages/benefits if they want employees. If they can’t do so, then said business should no longer exist.