TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that $240 million will go to rental assistance for affordable housing tenants, along with rent and mortgage assistance.
The Florida Housing Finance Corporation said they will oversee all of the money, but said the funding will be divided into two funding pools.
Trey Price Is the executive director of the FHFC.
Price said half of the funding, $120 million, will go toward helping tenants in their portfolio around the state, who have been struggling to make rent.
Price said they will work with landlords, who he said knows which tenants are behind in payments.
Price told New 6, there’s still a lot that needs to be worked out, like how far back the rental assistance will go, and how far forward it will go.
The other $120 million, Price said, will go to local housing offices.
But, as of now, he said they are still figuring out how the money for local governments will be distributed. Price said they are still working on, “how to get that money out on a formula basis to those local governments that have not received any CARES Act funding yet.”
Price said two factors in distributing the money will be the unemployment rate and population.
State Rep Anna Eskamani said people need assistance. She said she’d like to see the governor’s moratorium on evictions and foreclosures extended until everyone has been paid their unemployment benefits.
“When you have an eviction on your record, it’s very difficult to find a new lease,” Eskamani said.