King County Promises To Speed Up Rental Assistance Funding

KING COUNTY, WA — King County is "working urgently" to speed up rental assistance payments to tenants and landlords and will begin publishing weekly updates on its progress, officials announced Tuesday. In mid-August, The Seattle Times reported King County lagged behind its closest neighbors in distributing federal rent relief funds, having delivered just a fraction of the dollars provided in Pierce and Snohomish counties.

On Tuesday, the Department of Community and Human Services said it had revamped the Eviction Prevention and Rent Assistance Program by adding staffing and quickly adopting updated federal guidance to help cut down on some of the red tape.

"In response to nationwide challenges to quickly dispersing rental assistance funds, the U.S. Department of Treasury last week announced changes to federal requirements that will help to smooth out some of the biggest snags to getting funding our the door," DCHS officials wrote. "In addition to increasing staff assigned to the EPRAP team, King County is focusing on rapid assessment and implementation of two changes to quickly increase the rate of payment in the EPRAP program."

Here are two key changes to the program:

• Tenants may now self-attest to income, housing instability and financial impacts due to COVID-19, with the potential to streamline both the application and approval process that have previously slowed down payments.
• Rent assistance programs like EPRAP may now also be able to advance assistance to property owners and landlords based on estimated eligible arrears, making it possible to provide a portion of the estimated bulk payment due to large landlords in anticipation of full satisfaction of the application and documentation requirements.

Delays in standing up a new data system to manage payments and applications added another roadblock to the program, officials said. King County is aiming to have its data, payment and reporting systems fully up and running before the end of September, processing $6 million in assistance each week.

"To augment the fledgling data system during this delay, County staff and community partners have utilized a temporary manual payment system in concert with United Way of King County to process payments while the data system moved through the development and testing phases. With the data system now functioning, County staff are training tenants, landlords, and community-based agencies participating in the program on how to enter the necessary information into the system. County staff then review and approve payments directly to landlords, facilitated through a new agreement with US Bank that allows for expedited payments."

The county estimates it has paid out more than $22 million in rental assistance to roughly 3,400 households since January. Since adjusting the program in mid-July, officials said the program reached more than 846 tenants and paid more than $10 million directly to property owners on behalf of tenants who are behind on rent.

According to the county, more than 17,000 households have applied for rental assistance to date, and just under 4,000 are working with community organizations to receive funding. This year, DCHS estimates King County will assist three to four times more households than in 2020.

Landlords who receive rental payments from the program must agree to levy no new late fees or extra charges for the months covered and cannot raise rent prices for at least six months after the payment period. Officials estimate most tenants included in the program should not expect to see rent increases before next summer. Landlords and tenants must both agree to participate in the program.

Tenants in need of rental assistance can learn more about the EPRAP program and apply on the King County website.