LA County Mortgage Relief Partnership

CONSUMER AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS

County Spending Category
2.4 Stable Housing
Federal Expenditure Category
Household Assistance: Rent, Mortgage, and Utility Aid
Project Launch Date
06/21/2022
Anticipated End Date
08/31/2023
Interpretation Languages
  • Spanish
Written Languages
  • Spanish
Project Contacts Indicators & Metrics Target Populations Project Description Goals & Objectives

Project Contacts

Indicators & Metrics to Date

  • Number of Households Served
    0
  • Number of Households Receiving Eviction Prevention Services (Including Legal Representation)
    0
  • Execute subrecipient agreement with TPA
    1
  • Program will be promoted in multiple languages to most in need communities
    0
  • Launch grant application
    0
  • # of applications reviewed
    14
  • Number of Grants Provided
    0
  • Total Number of Grants Disbursed
    0
  • Total dollar amount of grants disbursed
    0
  • Total number of settlement agreements entered into
    0
  • Number of performance repo
    0
  • Project Evaluation Completed
    0
  • Number of settlement agreements executed
    0

Target Populations

Project Description

According to a January 2021 report by the California Legislature’s Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor, even before the pandemic, the high-cost of housing in California placed renter households in a perilous situation specifically the 1.5 million low-income households who paid at least half of their income towards their housing. A sudden job loss would have immediately placed these tenants on a path towards eviction. Which was exactly what occurred at the onset of the pandemic. Almost immediately, approximately 2.6 million Californians and 22 million people nationwide lost their employment, Unfortunately, job losses were highly concentrated among lower wage workers who were much more likely to rent than higher wage workers. As such, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the affordable housing and eviction crisis that was being experienced across the region. Justifiably, many feared that a vast number of these households would fall behind on their rent or mortgage which would lead to a tsunami of evictions and foreclosures. In order to protect vulnerable tenants experiencing financial hardships due to the pandemic, the County passed eviction moratoriums to mitigate their displacement and further harm. Although, financial relief programs were launched many landlords and tenants, specifically those from disadvantaged communities had difficulty accessing funds. This program intends to fill that gap. The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA) Mortgage Relief Project provides financial relief to property owners to alleviate their tenant’s COVID-19 rental and utilities debt, and, more specifically, for those tenants residing in historically underserved and vulnerable communities in the County of Los Angeles (County). The program will alleviate negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by both providing direct financial relief to address rental/utilities debt for disproportionately COVID-19 impacted tenants to avoid homelessness and by providing property owners with financial relief cause by the tenant’s inability to pay. DCBA will partner with a community-based organization who will provide grant administration and award rental assistance grants up to $30,000 per eligible property owner. Grants can be used to cover the property owner’s tenant as it relates to: 1. Delinquent/outstanding rent payments; and 2. Loss of utilities or home energy services (e.g., electricity, gas, water and sewer, trash removal, and energy costs, such as fuel oil). Additionally, this project will also fund administrative and staff costs to develop and implement this project since August of 2021.

Goals & Objectives

Goal Description Provide access to financial assistance to at least 133 landlords to eliminate the outstanding/current COVID-19 related rental/utilities debts for at minimum 133 highest/high need renters in the County by December 31, 2024.

Objective Description Disburse $4,000,000 in grant funding to landlords to alleviate their tenant’s COVID-19 related rental/utilities debt by December 31, 2023. 100% of the funding must benefit tenants residing in moderate, highest, and high-need census tracts, as identified by the COVID Recovery Index

Activity Description By September 30, 2022, DCBA will contract with a third-party administrator to implement the project. The third-party administrator will, in collaboration with DCBA, design the grant application, full eligibility criteria, application guidance in multiple languages (in at minimum Spanish) 
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
4 Performance Execute subrecipient agreement with TPA 1.00 1.00

Activity Description By October 15, 2022, The Third-Party Administrator, in collaboration with DCBA, will begin promotion of the grant opportunity to most in-need communities, in multiple language (at minimum Spanish) as identified via the COVID-19 vulnerability index. This project will leverage the Ethnic and Hyper Local Media ARP, as needed.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
5 Program Outcome Program will be promoted in multiple languages to most in need communities 1.00 1.00

Activity Description By October 31, 2022, The Third-Party Administrator will launch the grant application to begin accepting applications from qualified applicants.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
6 Service Delivery Launch grant application 1.00 1.00

Activity Description By November 30, 2022, the Third-Party Administrator will begin the application review and selection of awardees. This activity will be ongoing until funds are exhausted.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
7 Performance # of applications reviewed 1.00 133.00

Activity Description By December 31, 2023 the Third-Party Administrator will have disbursed all grant funding ($4,000,000) to a minimum of 133 grantees (if all grantees receive the maximum amount of grant).
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
8 Service Delivery Number of Grants Provided 1.00 133.00
22 Service Delivery Total dollar amount of grants disbursed 0.00 4000000.00

Activity Description By December 31, 2023, the Third-Party Administrator will submit monthly performance reports to DCBA throughout the duration of the program for monitoring purposes.
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
11 Performance Number of performance repo 0.00 12.00

Activity Description By March 31, 2023, DCBA will conduct an internal project evaluation
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
12 Program Outcome Project Evaluation Completed 0.00 1.00

Outcome Description Disburse a minimum of 133 grants to landlords to eliminate the outstanding/current COVID-19 related rental/utilities debts of their tenants
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
9 Performance Total Number of Grants Disbursed 0.00 133.00
22 Service Delivery Total dollar amount of grants disbursed 0.00 4000000.00

Goal Description Mitigate the risk of tenant displacement for tenants located in most in-need areas of the County by providing grant funds to their landlord by December 31, 2024.

Objective Description By December 31, 2023, ensure that property owners receiving grant funding accept these funds as full settlement of the tenant’s rental/utilities debt.

Activity Description Prior to the disbursement of each grant the Third-Party Administrator will facilitate a settlement agreement to ensure that the grantee accepts the funding on the condition that it settles the rental/utilities debt for the tenant, even if the rental/utilities debt is of a higher amount and that no eviction will be pursued. Additionally, the property owner would be required to file a satisfaction of any civil judgment if one has been adjudicated against the tenant for the rental/utilities debt satisfied by this funding.*
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
13 Service Delivery Number of settlement agreements executed 0.00 133.00

Outcome Description 100% of the grant funding is awarded to landlords to eliminate the COVID-19 rental/debts of renters in highest and high census tracts as identified by the COVID-19 Vulnerability and Recovery Index
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
8 Service Delivery Number of Grants Provided 1.00 133.00
22 Service Delivery Total dollar amount of grants disbursed 0.00 4000000.00

Outcome Description Tenants at risk of eviction because of rental/utilities debt become housing secure through settlement agreements facilitated through this project
Indicators
# Type Name Baseline Target
10 Service Delivery Total number of settlement agreements entered into 0.00 133.00