Westmoreland set to return portion of unspent rental assistance funds as program continues

Low-income Westmoreland County renters lost out on more than $10 million in federal funds from 2021 because the program was mired in red tape, an official said.

Qualifications for the program — designed to help renters who suffered direct financial losses during the coronavirus pandemic — were onerous and difficult to document. As a result, none of that cash was spent, said Dan Carney, executive director of the Union Mission in Latrobe, which serves as the coordinator for the program.

Most of the funds dispersed in the first round of rental assistance will be returned to the U.S. Treasury, said Meghan McCandless, the county’s finance director. About $100,000 of the $10.4 million grant was used to pay for the program’s administrative costs and won’t be refunded.

But additional help is available, with fewer restrictions.

The county received three tranches of rental assistance funding totaling more than $36 million in the past two years, including the initial $10.4 million allocation, which had to be spent by Sept. 30 or refunded to the federal government.

The second round of federal funding — $12.5 million also released last year — carried fewer qualifications and allowed grants to be awarded to renters who had less specific financial losses during the pandemic. Those funds have been exhausted.

A third round of grants, allocated earlier this year totaling more than $13.8 million, remains available and must be spent before the end of 2025.

Through last week, the county helped more than 2,000 households and awarded more than $13 million in grants, Carney said.

“We’re still up and running and still accepting applications and marketing the program,” Carney said.

Applications are available at: erapwestmoreland.org.

“People whose finances were impacted during the pandemic for whatever reason — the cost of groceries went up, their car broke down, job loss — can qualify. This money uplifts more people who are struggling,” Carney said.

Renters with annual income below 80% of the county’s medium earning level can qualify for the grants. A one-person household with a yearly income of $46,500 — or a family of four with earnings up to $66,400 — is eligible for help, Carney said.

The county has about 35,000 rental units, and officials estimate about 57% of those households, or nearly 20,000, meet financial eligibility requirements, officials said earlier this year.

The program will pay past and future rent and help cover utility bills for up to 18 months.

Meanwhile, officials believe about $60,000 in grant requests are believed fraudulent, Carney said.

About half of the grant applications submitted to the rental assistance programs are rejected based the suspicion of fraud and have been referred to county and state law enforcement agencies for investigation, Carney said. Criminal charges have been filed in five cases, and more investigations are pending.