PROVIDENCE – A new $200 million, emergency rental assistance program that will be administered by the R.I. Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp. is expected to launch on March 31.
Called RentReliefRI, the federal program is managed by the U.S. Treasury and will be aimed at tenants and landlords who have lost income during the COVID-19 pandemic.
R.I. Housing has created a website for the program with a signup form for people who are interested in more information.
The eligibility requirements will restrict applicants to those who earned 80% or below of the area median income, and who are in danger of eviction.
The launch is expected this month because of concern about escalating evictions.
Last week, R.I. Housing selected a number of community nonprofit partners to help communicate information to prospective applicants about the program and to assist people in signing up once it launches.
Witt O’Brien’s LLC, of Washington, D.C., was selected among 16 applicants to run the call center and telephone support services. The contract is for up to $2.5 million. The company is also managing call center services for the Kansas and Minnesota emergency rental relief programs.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at MacDonald@PBN.com.
