rental assistance

Every January, communities across the country come together and try to estimate the homeless population by going out at night and trying to locate those without a place to stay. Point in Time happens in late January in Wyoming. In Gillette, the Council of Community Services (CCS) also hosted its annual event on the same day this year. It’s meant to connect the local homeless population with several social service agencies to help them get back on their feet.

Emergency rental assistance programs have served tens of thousands of people and handed out hundreds of millions of dollars for things like rent and utility payments since they began during the pandemic. Now, many places in the Mountain West are no longer accepting applications because they’ve run out of funds.

Gov. Mark Gordon responded to criticisms of Wyoming's emergency rental assistance program, arguing in a letter that the Equality State is actually leading the way, and that Congress could do more to help struggling homeowners, renters and the homeless.

Wyoming's Emergency Rental Assistance Program has awarded $4.7 million to more than 1,400 households. That money comes from a large pool of funding from the federal government. Recently, Wyoming and other small states were criticized for spending only a fraction of their funding so far. But Wyoming Public Radio's Jeff Victor spoke with Department of Family Services Director Korin Schmidt who said the program is accelerating after a rocky start. But that rocky start, Schmidt said, was necessary to get out as much assistance as possible to all the people who needed it.

The stakes have risen sharply to get rental assistance aid to struggling Americans on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ends the national eviction moratorium.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina wrote letters to Gov. Mark Gordon and four other governors, criticizing their states for spending less than three percent of their available rental assistance funds.

Northern Arapaho Tribal Housing is helping to disperse federal funds aimed at helping those impacted by COVID-19 make rent and utility payments.

The federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program is giving $25 billion to states, large cities and tribes. This program seeks to improve upon previous…

Wyoming residents will be able to apply for rental assistance starting this week, taking advantage of a program backed by federal COVID relief…

The COVID Relief Bill passed by Congress last month includes a substantial sum of money for rental assistance across the country. Which agency or…