Newton CPC: City Council approves $2 million in CPA funding for the COVID-19 Emergency Housing Relief Program
Emergency Rental Assistance
by Jerry Reilly | May 19, 2020 | Newton | 14 comments
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Newton CPC: City Council approves $2 million in CPA funding for the COVID-19 Emergency Housing Relief Program
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
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You failed to mention the $187,000 admin fee the city is paying to metrowest to handle the paperwork.
I assume the paperwork involved verifying the applicant lived in a city subsidized home (a database lookup) and confirmation of job loss (unemployment application or letter of termination) and income (tax return)
How many thousands of dollars per application are we paying for?
https://newton.wickedlocal.com/news/20200515/newton-offers-housing-business-grants-due-to-coronavirus-crisis
@Bugek
No need. You’re doing a fine job of that 😉
Jerry,
someone should dig further as the article seems to imply Newton is paying $187,000 to distribute $500,000 (metro west handling only the renters/homeowners applications?)
.. i hope its not true
“Of the $1.1 million, $500,000 will go toward rent and mortgage assistance…”
@Bugek – the city is not paying $187k. That’s a cap – the most the city will pay.
The article says:
It doesn’t say how much the per applicant cost will be.
Also, the program is not for renter who are already receiving rental assistance such as Public Housing tenants, RAFT, Section 8, etc., nor is it for households receiving mortgage assistance under the RAFT program or another mortgage assistance program.
There are a few things that need to be verified:
Meridith,
Does anyone honestly believe metro west is not going to squeeze every last penny of that $187,000.
Its the percentage thats so jarring. Potentially over 30% admin processing feed to distribute $500k… yes yes, i know about the potential increase of funds to $2m.. but if it never happens then this fee amount is a travesty
Again… i hope I’m totally wrong and someone from the city can clarify
The $187k cap is for administering the $2.5 million. $2 million in CPA funds approved last night and the previously announced $500k in CDBG funds. It’s not $187k out of $500k.
I am surprised that the city council would approve such a shoddy and inequitable proposal. Wow.
Shoddy. Metro West is not getting compensated for accurately handling applications. They are getting compensated for the amount of money applicants receive. What incentive does this create?
Inequitable. There are two types of low income people. Low income people who get lucky and win the affordable housing and low income people apply for affordable housing and lose the lottery. Which of these two groups needs more help? The exact people who the city council are NOT giving the money to.
The WSJ estimates that half of the people who receive COVID19 support will, after assistance, receive more total income (benefits+wages) than they did before the crisis. The proposal does not seem to have any restriction that prevents people from receiving more benefits than their loss. Thus, fewer resources will flow to the people who really need the money
Aren’t “we all in this together”? The City should have required landlords to forgive a portion of rent–perhaps 15%–in exchange for the 70% donation that we taxpayers will make DIRECTLY TO THE LANDLORD under this program. We are all in the middle of a crisis. Many homeowners are suffering too. This program almost makes it “business as usual” for some lucky landlords. How is that fair?
Meanwhile, we are paying a 7.5% commission ($175K / $2.5M) to the Metro West Development Collaborative, a non-government organization.
I appreciate the work of the Metro West Development Collaborative, but I don’t see why the City of Newton needs to pay them for what should be a government function. Don’t we already have enough employees at City Hall to handle these applications? Are there no City employees whose ordinary work has come to a standstill, who are still collecting pay, and who could do this work from home? Many community members would have volunteered their time freely to support this process. I, for one, would have gladly volunteered (and yes, a number of us in Newton have financial backgrounds and the language skills necessary to serve Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking applicants).
And a point of clarification: the need to provide services in other languages was identified by the program sponsors, not by me.
One more thing. Why is there a lottery? Why are we throwing dice to see who gets money. If twice as many people apply, isn’t it better to give everyone half as much than to randomly give half the people the full amount? I hope I misunderstood how the lottery works. It can’t be as nutty as it sounds.
Is there something in the docket that explains who monitors the lottery. A lottery without monitoring is a recipe for abuse.
I wish I could go back and edit comments!
After reading the poster more carefully, I think that applicants are considered even if they are not “affordable” housing. If so, and if housing support, is not a requirement, that alleviates some of my inequitable concerns.
The application process asks about unemployment benefits So, that is good, although it does not explicitly ask about stimulus funds.
The Tab’s information was not accurate. Here’s what today’s email from Mayor Fuller says:
Village 14 folks—most of these questions were addressed at our Committee of the Whole meetings, and I encourage you to listen to the audio if you want the answers.
Some are also answered in the memo we got last Friday for Monday’s meeting.
Short answer—Council was not totally happy with the Mayor going ahead and awarding MetroWest the contract for $500K in CDBG money before we had OK’ed the $2m, but in the balance, the administration answered our questions sufficiently that we approved the program 23-1.
Also, there aren’t a lot of players out there who could administer this program and MetroWest has a good reputation and track record. Knowing how many people likely needed the help, it was more important to get funds out before the eviction stay was lifted and keep people in homes rather than add to the misery.
Thanks Andreae and Meredith for clarifying some points in this post.
I am no longer surprised when the Tab has incorrect information in its articles. I always double/triple check What I read there.
I am not at all happy with the many times our mayor has committed to spending large sums of money or proceeding in other ways without going through the proper process. She oversteps the bounds of the executive branch without getting input from the legislative branch – sometimes it seems she thinks CDBG funds are to be used at her discretion. It’s good that this time she had proper information to bring to the city council before they approved the expenditure.