SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Monday announced that the city's new emergency rental assistance program will begin accepting applications on Friday.
The city's program is designed to keep tenants in their homes by leveraging existing eviction protections and maximizing prospective rental assistance. San Francisco's local program can provide up to six months of rental assistance including three months of future rent, the announcement said.
The local program will prioritize the most vulnerable tenants using an evidence-based screening tool that considers a range of factors, such as past homelessness and extremely low household income. San Francisco's program is in addition to the state of California's rental assistance program, which will provide rental assistance for unpaid rents for the period of April 2020 to March 2021, according to the announcement.
"This has been a year of challenges unlike anything we've faced before, and the economic fallout of the pandemic has been devastating for so many businesses and employees. This rent relief is critical to helping tenants and small property owners get back on their feet as we continue on with our economic recovery," said Breed. "It's absolutely crucial that we keep people in their homes, and this funding will help ensure that happens."
Over 90 million U.S. dollars has been allocated to San Francisco tenants and landlords from the federal government for rental assistance, with over 60 million dollars in total being allocated to this new rental assistance program over two rounds of funding.
The remaining 30 million dollars in funding from the federal government is earmarked for San Franciscans in funding directed to the state of California, the announcement said.
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