State Pandemic Rental Assistance Program Cutting Off Applications November 15

Colorado’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program will close its application portal on November 15 — but people in need won't be left to fend for themselves, the state says.

The program under the Department of Local Affairs was always designed to be temporary, doling out money from several sources of federal funding to help people navigate hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that put them at risk of losing their homes.

The state received $255 million through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act and $196 million from the American Rescue Plan. It also inherited $14.9 million from smaller jurisdictions in the state that had received their own funds but weren’t spending them at the rate the U.S. Treasury required, according to Melissa Nereson, the DOLA housing recovery manager.

So far, over 36,000 households have received funds, which cover rent for people financially impacted by the pandemic. The money from the CARES Act had to go to households where a member had lost a job directly as a result of COVID-19, and the ARPA funds could go to anyone experiencing a financial impact from the pandemic or at risk of homelessness.

As of September 30, the program had given away $333 million of the allotted $465 million.

The decision to shut down on November 15 was based on internal analysis indicating that, in order to avoid the dollar amount of applications exceeding the remaining funds, the portal would need to close by then.

“The ERA program really was an unprecedented program,” Nereson says. “We likely will never see these amounts of dollars coming in for emergency rental assistance as they did during the pandemic, so what we're doing is we're really trying to make sure that we can stabilize households as we wind this down.”

DOLA’s housing navigators will work with those who qualified for funding under the program to connect them to legal representation, tenant-landlord mediation and the state’s case navigation network. They’ll also refer them to local resources that help with costs other than rental assistance, such as energy bills and food assistance, which could reduce the cost burden on households and free up more money for rent.

People in Denver County, Larimer County and Boulder County can still apply for rental assistance from those counties specifically, since they qualify as large jurisdictions and still have their own funding from the U.S. Treasury.

ERAP Applications are still being accepted until 11:59 p.m. on November 15, Neresen notes. Those whose applications are already under review don’t need to take additional action; the state will continue to process applications until all the funds from the program have been awarded.

“We don't want folks who have already applied and their application is pending to think that they're not going to receive assistance,” Nereson says. "We intend on still continuing to assist those families. … It's important that folks know that they can still apply.”