Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
The City and County of Honolulu is reopening applications for its Rental and Utility Relief Program on Monday at 2 p.m. It comes after the city exceeded the maximum amount of applications it was willing to accept in the first round just four hours after the portal opened.
The second round of applications will continue to focus on households below 50% of the area median income in Honolulu, which is $44,100 a year for one person and $62,950 for a family of four. Those who have a member of the household who has been unemployed for at least 90 days, and is still currently unemployed, also will be accepted.
Households that qualify will be able to receive up to $2,500 a month for outstanding rent and utility payments, up to $2,000 for future rent payments and up to $500 for future utility payments. The total amount of these payments can continue for up to 12 months and will be made directly to the landlord or utility company. The program can cover bills dating back to March 2020.
Honolulu launched the program in early April to distribute $114 million in federal COVID relief for rent and utilities by the end of the year.
In four weeks the city approved $4.8 million worth of relief for about 600 households. Out of the 8,000 applications that were submitted, about 2,000 have yet to be processed. However, some applications were incomplete, and the city’s community partners are helping applicants complete their paperwork.
That is a large improvement from the city’s 2020 Household Hardship Relief Fund, which after 12 weeks distributed only $2.1 million.
The city will accept 4,000 applications before temporarily closing the portal to help manage processing the applications.
The portal will reopen on the first working Monday of each month for as long as funding is available.
People can apply for the Rental and Utility Relief Program at oneoahu.org/renthelp.
81