Evanston Landlords To Get $500,000 In COVID Relief Funding

EVANSTON, IL — Local landlords are set to receive half a million dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funding after the Evanston City Council unanimously approved the creation of a new financial assistance program for property owners.

Councilmembers last week unanimously approved the creation of the Small/Medium Residential Provider Assistance Program, which allocates $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to landlords in Evanston.

Owners of up to 35 rental units in Evanston located in a trio of less wealthy census tracts are eligible for the money, as long as their properties are registered with the city and do not have major code violations, according to a memo from Marion Johnson, housing and grants supervisor.

The program provides payments of up to 75 percent of net income lost from eligible properties, which is calculated by subtracting landlord's 2021 net income from their 2019 net income as reported on business tax returns, Johnson said. No single landlord can receive more than $15,000.

"The program design strikes a balance between focusing assistance on naturally occurring affordable housing that is rented at affordable rates and an easy-to-implement program to get funding out rapidly and with minimal barriers for financially impacted applicants," Johnson said. "To prioritize resources for landlords most at risk of being economically impacted by COVID-19 and in areas most at risk of losing affordable housing, the program uses geographic restrictions."

The three census tracts eligible for the assistance — 8092, 8102 and 8103.1 — are located in South Evanston along the north side of Howard Street in the 8th Ward and on the lakeside of the North Shore Channel in the 5th Ward.

According to Johnson, the 35-unit maximum was based on the understanding the owners of larger buildings have more opportunities to reduce cost associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the threshold could include more landlords whose tenants provide their primary source of income.

In a survey of local landlords conducted by a Economic Development Committee task force, the average loss per landlord was nearly $7,000, the maximum loss was $22,000 and the average reported rent delinquency was six to seven months, although the city only received 50 survey responses out of about 3,300 landlords in town, Johnson said.

"While the survey responses included a very small portion of Evanston’s landlords, the data showed a wide variety of financial impacts on the City’s landlords," Johnson said. "Many landlords reported little to no impact while those who did showed a broad range of financial impact that did not correlate to the number of units owned."

Ald. Devon Reid, 8th Ward, was a member of the Small-Medium Landlord Task Force, which was formed last year to come up with a way to provide financial aid to property owners.

"I've been — even though I served on the task force that worked on this conflicted about this. And this is a decent chunk of our remaining ARPA [funds,]" Reid said, asking staff how much money is left from the $43 million in federal COVID-19 relief allocated to Evanston, ahead of the vote at the Feb. 27 Evanston City Council meeting.

Deputy City Manager Dave Stoneback said there was about $6 million remaining. He said staff plan to deliver a presentation about it at the next City Council meeting on March 13.