Pandemic aid boosts Petaluma rental assistance

This latest grant tips the city’s allotment of coronavirus-related housing aid for low-income residents to more than half a million dollars.|

The Petaluma City Council Monday approved a second infusion of coronavirus-related federal aid, which will further fund existing rental assistance and homelessness prevention programs geared toward low-income residents struggling as a result of the pandemic.

The approximately $380,800 grant is the second round in federal CARES Act funds dispersed through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, sending Petaluma’s allotment of coronavirus-related housing aid to more than half a million dollars.

This latest financial support will give $200,000 to the city’s largest nonprofit and leading housing assistance organization, Petaluma People Services Center. $150,000 is to go to the Committee on the Shelterless, the nonprofit that runs the city’s only homeless shelter, the Mary Isaak Center. The remaining $30,815, or roughly 8%, is earmarked for city administration costs.

Eligibility for the programs administered by the respective organizations span low-income to very low-income earners, who make between 30% and 80% of the region’s annual median income. Those in need of help must apply directly to the organizations’ assistance programs, which are operated independently of the city.

This most recent grant is the second of its kind for Petaluma, bringing the total federal funding geared toward pandemic-related rental assistance to $587,000 this year.

“These funds can only be used as rental assistance, under a program we already started back in the spring,” said Assistant City Manager Brian Cochran. “The focus is on helping people impacted by COVID that have lost their jobs or are at risk of losing their homes.”

The first grant, delivered through the existing Community Development Block Grant program in early May, awarded the city $206,544. Of that amount, $100,000 went immediately to Petaluma People Services Center. Another $40,000 of the first grant amount went to PEP Housing, which provides housing for very-low income seniors, and another $50,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma-Marin. The final $16,544 went to city administration expenses.

The latest grant will further assist Petaluma People Services Center fund existing programs offering rental assistance for the city’s most vulnerable residents.

Elece Hempel, the organization’s executive director, said she’s noticed a trend in the demographics of those applying for rental assistance, as well as a common employment sector that has been sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve seen a large increase in the number of Latino families that are applying for assistance,” she said. “Almost 78% of these families were in the hospitality industry.”

However, the nonprofit has also started to move funds to their “Bridge the Gap” program recently as well, which helps seniors stay housed as rents for some individuals increase.

Unlike the first round of grant funding, which came to the city in early May amid an eviction moratorium, Cochran said it’s unclear if demand for assistance will rise now that a statewide ban has expired.

A recently-released report published by the North Bay Organizing Project and the Santa Rosa-based Bay Area Equity Atlas outlines roughly 6,000 Sonoma County households are potentially facing eviction following the eviction ban expiration in August.

Cochran said city-specific data that illustrates the scope of the pandemic’s impact on Petaluma residents’ housing security is not readily available, pointing instead to countywide data.

Following a request for more detailed number breakdowns from Vice Mayor D’Lynda Fischer and Councilman Kevin McDonnell at Monday nigh’ts meeting, city staff committed to publishing information about how the funds are being used on the city’s website. Fischer asked specifically to see how many people these grants are assisting in order to get a better understanding of the existing need among residents.

Including the two pandemic-related housing assistance grants, the city of Petaluma has received $938,476 in Community Development Block Grant funds for low- and very low-income housing programs in the 2019 to 2020 fiscal year.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, CARES Act funds allocated to Petaluma have reached a total of $3.1 million, which have buttressed medical transport services, public safety, transportation sectors, firefighting and personal protective equipment purchases.

(Contact Kathryn Palmer at kathryn.palmer@arguscourier.com, on Twitter @KathrynPlmr.)

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