The Austin City Council is hoping millions in additional rental assistance dollars will help keep the city's relatively low COVID-driven eviction numbers down, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said in a recent social media post.
Adler took to Twitter the same day last week when the city council authorized federal COVID stimulus money to provide assistance to Austin's vulnerable households through June 30, 2022. The city council's authorization included broader marketing and outreach efforts.
"Today, city council approved an additional $6.6 million in rental assistance and extended renter protections through Dec. 31," Adler said in his Thursday, Oct. 14 Twitter post. "This program has helped 34,000 Austinites during the pandemic, protecting many on the cusp of homelessness."
Adler's Twitter post included a graph of evictions in Texas throughout the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1,700 Austin households were evicted between March 18, 2020 and this past Oct. 2, according to the graph.
During that same period, almost 25,000 households in Fort Worth, more than 25,000 households in Houston and more than 27,000 households in Dallas were evicted, according to the graph.
The graph's data was provided by Eviction Lab, a research facility at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Adler's executive order prohibiting landlords from issuing notices to vacate, except in certain circumstances, expires at the end of this year.
Keeping evictions low is a priority in Austin, as residents voted last spring to pass Proposition B. The proposition reintroduced a homeless camping ban, over Adler's opposition, despite the mayor's appeal to opt for "something that will really work."
"Our community's choice is really clear," Adler said in an op-ed piece published in the April 26 edition of Austin Monthly. "We can either (1) put our energy and resources behind housing those without homes (with needed services), or we can (2) hide them from our view, warehoused in remote camps or returned to the woods and creeks that used to be their homes."
Austin's RENT Assistance Program is for low income renters in the city who are at risk of losing their home and have suffered financially during the pandemic.
Anyone who would like more information about or assistance from Austin's rental assistance program may visit the city's website here, call (512) 488-1397 or email AustinRENT@cvrassociates.com.