The City of Kenai’s housing assistance program has only paid out a little over half of its allocated funds a week into December. According to the City, there seems to be a common thread among the applicants who have not heard responses yet: they have not answered the phone calls and e-mails that are sent to follow-up on applications.
The assistance program is open to City of Kenai households with an annualized income that does not exceed $71,760, which is 80% of the median income for Kenai. The income calculation will be based on what the household members are earning after job losses, cutbacks in hours, or reduced self-employment income due to COVID-19 impacts.
Around $1.1 million in CARES funds have been set aside for the program, but only $700,000 has been sent out, thus far.
In a release issued on Tuesday, City Manager Paul Ostrander said that it is important to work with their partners in making the program a reality, and that includes answering phone calls from an area code you may not know: “Alaska Housing first verifies that the applicant lives in the City of Kenai, then a Catholic Social Services case worker will call or email the applicant to verify their lost income and request some documents to complete the process. If you see a call from a 360 area code, answer it. The case worker is working remotely, using his cell phone, which shows up on your caller ID as a 360 area code. If you get an email from someone at cssalaska.org, please respond promptly.”
The City is aiming to have payments sent out by December 30, which is the deadline for CARES Act funds to be spent. Households that received assistance in the state’s summer program do not need to reapply; the corporation’s contractor will reach out to them to verify their current information.