Statewide Iowa — Rental assistance programs are bracing for a spike in eviction filings in August after the federal hold on some evictions ends this week.
As of last week, the state had only distributed seven-million dollars of the nearly 200-million it received to help Iowans who are behind on rent payments. A separate Polk County program has given more than twice as much money to renters as the program meant to serve all 99 counties. Eric Burmeister is executive director of the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, one of the program’s partners.
Burmeister says Polk County has given about 16-million dollars to renters through the program so far with the goal of keeping people in their homes.
The state’s only distributed a small portion of the money it was given for rental assistance due to a deluge in requests. An Iowa Finance Authority spokesperson says the agency hopes to get through a backlog of applications by July 30th. Iowans facing eviction in any county can go to iowa-finance-dot-com for more information about assistance.
