Alaska Housing accepting applications for pandemic rental relief

WASILLA — Alaska Housing Finance Corporation is currently accepting applications for rental relief to Alaskans who’ve been negatively impacted by the pandemic.

Alaska Housing is offering assistance again after distributing over 123 million federally allotted funds to renters across the state since last year, according to Director of Governmental Relations and Public Affairs, Stacy Barnes. She said that one-third of Alaskan renters previously applied for rental assistance, noting that those who are still receiving assistance cannot apply for this second round of assistance.

“We were able to use this federal assistance both to take care of the tenants who may have gone all the way through to eviction, and also take care of the landlords who have mortgages,” Barnes said.

Barnes said that applicants must meet within 80 percent of the required income to qualify for assistance. She said that reasons for assistance can range from job loss to unexpected medical bills. Allotted funds vary by renters’ agreements with their landlords and are paid directly to them.

“As soon as we have that information, we’re gonna be able to get payments out fairly quickly. The last time we started the program, we closed the window for applications in March. We actually started issuing our first payments that very same month and continued to issue more and more since then,” Barnes said.

Alaska Housing processed applications for about 20,000 households and 51,000 tenants with approximately 8,000 landlords and utility companies paid. Barns said they have over 130 employees dedicated to the program who work with community partners across the state who help distribute the checks to applicants among other forms of assistance.

“It’s been incredible and that’s been because of our partnerships with our nonprofit partners,” Barnes said. “It’s actually a pretty incredible story because there aren’t a lot of other states who using a model quite like this,” Barnes said. “I think it represents the very best of Alaska. COVID-19 started last year and the federal government’s response was to provide money so that Americans wouldn’t be evicted from their homes even though they were losing jobs, losing hours, and incurring medical expenses all across the country. Alaska Housing Financing Corp working with the regional housing authorities and with the nonprofits has developed a system where we all are looking out for one another. It’s a really incredible only in Alaska story.”

The deadline for applications is Oct 1. Renters are encouraged to check their eligibility online at AlaskaHousingRelief.org. They can also call 1-844-330-8290 for assistance.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com