San Bernardino County Offers Rent Payment Assistance to Most Vulnerable Residents

The County of San Bernardino will begin offering financial assistance for paying rent to residents affected by the pandemic.

The San Bernardino County Rent Relief Alliance will use a federal fund of more than $46.8 million obtained through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 to provide rental assistance and utilities to county residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county offers the program in conjunction with Inland SoCal 211+ (ISC211) and will provide up to 12 months of overdue rent and/or potential rent payments, as well as utility arrears and prospective assistance.

"This program will provide much-needed relief to renters desperately trying to stay in their homes and, in turn, to homeowners who have been severely affected by the economic effects of the pandemic," said the Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors Curt Hagman. "The county's partnership with Inland SoCal 211+ is a key step toward our region's economic recovery."

The county's program will target the most vulnerable households or individuals who have experienced the greatest impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

REQUIREMENTS

Households must meet the following criteria to receive assistance:

• Household members must reside within San Bernardino County.
• The household must be required to pay the rent for a residential home and have a family income equal to or less than 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
• One or more individuals within the household qualified for unemployment benefits or experienced a reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or experienced another financial hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the COVID-19 outbreak;
• One or more persons within the household may demonstrate the risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
• One or more persons within 50% of the AMI household are unemployed on the date of the assistance application and have not been employed during the 90-day period prior to that date.

Residents of the cities of Fontana and San Bernardino should apply directly to their respective cities for assistance. Applicants from these cities applying for the county program will be redirected to their corresponding programs.

ISC211 will begin accepting applications on Monday, April 12, 2021. Current plans require the program to be available until December 31, 2021 or until all funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.

For more information and to be included in a wait list, you can click here.

Also, you can visit the SC211 website by clicking here.

To fill out the program application, you can dial 211 and select extension 5 or click here.

Households with a family income above 50% of AMI, but below 80%, are receiving assistance from the California State Rent Relief program for COVID-19. You can visit the page by clicking here.

This story first appeared on NBCLA's sister station, Telemundo 52. Haz clic aquí para leer esta historia en español