Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to enter into a subaward grant agreement with Legal Aid Society of Columbus in an amount up to $600,000.00 of federal Emergency Rental Assistance 2 funds to provide housing stability services for qualified residents and providing for expenses starting January 1, 2021. Legal Aid Society of Columbus shall be a “subrecipient” as defined under federal guidelines.
Ordinance 2275-2021 authorized the City of Columbus to accept and appropriate $22,355,652.60 of federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA 2) program funds, as passed by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. Of this amount, up to $600,000.00 will be used for a subaward agreement with Legal Aid Society of Columbus to provide housing stability services (as defined by U.S. Treasury) to qualifying residents of the local community to ensure housing stability.
In this agreement, at least 60% of the funding will support households with an AMI at 50% or below and/or have a member of the household who has been unemployed for 90 days; up to 40% of the funding can be used for households with an AMI at 80% or below; and 10% of the funding will be utilized for Administrative costs.
Legal Aid Society of Columbus will be piloting an expansion of its current work at the on-site clinic at eviction court. This one year pilot, funded by both ERA2 and City of Columbus general funds (see companion ordinance), will provide enhanced services at court to give tenants a fair chance to access legal representation and remain in their homes. These services will help address the many needs of tenants experiencing multiple barriers to achieving lasting housing stability. Legal Aid Society of Columbus has successfully provided services as a partner in an ERA1 agreement and has access to eligible tenants and landlords for providing services with ERA2 funds.
It is expected that the guidance from the U.S. Department of Treasury will ...
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