The City of Kenai is offering up to four months rental assistance or mortgage relief for qualifying households through the end of the year, allocating up to $400,000 of CARES Act funding to assist residents who have lost income due to the public health emergency.
Eligible households may qualify to receive up to $1,200 a month in housing assistance, September through December, depending on the cost of their rent or mortgage and the amount of their income loss due to work shutdowns or slowdowns from COVID-19.
City Manager Paul Ostrander has details on the program: “Really, it’s an extension of this Alaska housing program. We have slated $400,000 for this. There were 80 City of Kenai residents, approximately 80, who applied for the first Alaska housing one. So, we’re estimating about the same about: the number, the total amount that we’re going to pay out is likely much less than $400,000, but we wanted to add a little bit of a contingency in case we got additional applications or if we see additional impacts to our economy over the next four months that we haven’t seen to-date.”
The City has contracted with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to administer the program. The agency operated a one-month, statewide housing assistance program this summer, and now is working with several Alaska cities to continue the program using the municipalities’ own share of federal CARES Act funding for local residents.
The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and its contractor will review applications from City of Kenai residents, verify their income, and issue payments directly to the landlord or mortgage servicer. 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. City of Kenai residents who did not participate this summer can apply online at www.KenaiHousingRelief.org.
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.