Lexington’s local government is joining the state with a separate plan to help those facing evictions due to coronavirus related financial hardships. The $980,000 plan was spelled out during a special council budget committee meeting Tuesday.
Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention Director Polly Ruddick says eligible households can see up to $4000 dollars in assistance. She said the funding goes to landlords who will make sure the money goes to those with loss of income tied to COVID-19. “We’ve had tenants say you can’t evict me so I’m just not going to pay my rent. So, we need to weed those people out since they didn’t have a change of income, so it’s very important that the landlords sign off on this and they also verify that their tenant had a change of income,” said Ruddick.
Ruddick said the program is only available to Fayette County residents. She said it also includes a component for relocation for people who have already been evicted. Governor Beshear announced this week $15 million to go for similar assistance statewide, except in Louisville where a program already exists. ? City Council Member Richard Moloney believes the city should defer to the state on the matter. “The state has come back to fix this problem. The city did not take this on. We took this on later to find out, we didn’t see the state doing anything. Now that the state has come back on doing this, I question do we really want to spend this money yet and see what the state’s gonna do,” noted Moloney.
The full program also calls for a housing market partnership through the Lexington House Authority, community feeding collaborative, and emergency relocation.
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