Rental assistance grants lag in Westmoreland County; $28 million available to help

Westmoreland County has millions of dollars at the ready to help residents pay their back rent and bills, with much of that cash yet to be spent.

The county has received another nearly $3.4 million from the state to bolster the ongoing rental assistance program authorized through federal coronavirus relief efforts, officials said this week. In all, the county has received more than $36 million. Through Tuesday, it has spent just shy of $8 million.

“People are applying and getting funding, but we’re still finding people who didn’t know this program even existed,” said Dan Carney, executive director of Union Mission in Latrobe, the agency commissioners appointed to oversee the rental assistance program.

The county received multiple tranches of cash with a requirement the first allocation be spent by the end of September. Meghan McCandless, the county’s finance director, said $15 million in additional allocations to needy renters must be doled out by a Sept. 30 deadline or that cash could be forfeited back to the state.

“There is definitely a need, and we have to have a plan to move in a more aggressive way,” county Commissioner Sean Kertes said.

Allegheny County this month announced its rental assistance program will end soon, with applications for new grants to be halted after March 31. Allegheny County, through March 1, awarded 12,000 households more than $84 million in grants to pay rent and utilities.

Low-income renters who suffered financial hardship during the pandemic are eligible for grant allocations to pay back and future monthly rents and utility bills. Residents with annual incomes of 80% of the median income in the county are eligible for the grants. For example, a family of four with an annual income of $66,400 in Westmoreland County can receive funding from the rental assistance program should they show proof there is a risk of homelessness and financial hardship because of the pandemic, Carney said.

Westmoreland County has about 35,000 rental units, and officials estimate about 57% of those households, nearly 20,000, meet financial eligibility requirements.

“So we anticipated that we should see somewhere between 4,000 (and) 7,000 households early on and that as the continued economic impacts of the pandemic continue that this number would increase,” Carney said.

Through Tuesday, 1,344 rental assistance grants were handed out in Westmoreland County. Another 428 applications are being processed and 151 are pending landlord approval or payments, according to the county’s finance office.

Carney said officials are looking to ramp up efforts to allocate the rental assistance grants. The county recently contracted with United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania to allow applicants to submit claims through the agency’s 211 hotline.

Paper applications also were sent to local district judge offices to hand out to defendants facing potential eviction proceedings.

Applications can be found on a website created for the county’s rental assistance program at erapwestmoreland.org.

“It’s important to understand that most folks who rent should apply,” Carney said. “We are a very proud community in Westmoreland County, and I think people need to understand it’s OK to reach out for help.”