COLOMBIA, SC (WIS) – A program to help South Carolina renters and mortgage payers recover payments is no longer taking orders after demand exploded in the early days.
SC Accommodation launched SC Stay on February 18 with $ 25 million in funding under the CARES Act to split among applicants to help them catch up on late payments.
SC Housing spokesman Chris Winston said that within six days the program received more than 7,000 applications and almost 5,000 will be eligible.
He said these 5,000 candidates are expected to run out of funds.
“We have been listening to a lot of people in the past few months, since the word of the program started to spread, about 8,000 people asked us to let them know as soon as the program was opened. We knew there was going to be a lot of demand, ”he said.
The program offers 6 months of payments of up to $ 7,500, also allowing renters to pay their rent late as of February 2020.
The current CDC moratorium prevents evictions linked to COVID-19-related causes, but does not create a short-term path for homeowners to recover their rent.
In November, the National Council of State Housing Agencies estimated that, in January, SC tenants would be $ 163 to $ 266 million behind on their rent.
He estimates that if the moratorium were removed, 34,600 to 63,600 families would have been in eviction risk that month.
Matt Foster is a managing partner at Carolina Moves, a property management company in Greenville. He also owns a property.
In a December interview with WIS, he said that six properties he manages were using the moratorium. On Sunday, he said that number would rise to 11.
“It is very disconcerting when the government is giving you a moratorium on not being able to evict, homeowners have to be creative and it just puts a lot of pressure on the administrators and homeowners themselves on how they are going to pay the mortgage bill,” he said.
Foster said that some landlords he works with had to start looking for other lease violations, as tenants were unable to pay the rent, including mistreating the property or unlabeled cars in the garage.
“It is an uncomfortable position to put us in, and contrary to what the CDC intended us to do anyway,” he said.
He said he is not surprised at how quickly the $ 25 million has been used and expects more funds to be invested in rent and mortgage assistance.
The CDC moratorium is scheduled to end on March 31.
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