CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Gov. Jim Justice is urging renters and landlords to take advantage of the Mountaineer Rental Assistance Program. The state has more than $100 million from pandemic relief funds to help those in need. It must be spent by September 2022.
Executive Director of the West Virginia Housing Development Fund, Erica Boggess, said submitting a complete application is very important. The process requires many different types of documents that will take time to assemble before residents can submit the online application.
“The best thing to do is to make sure you have a good, solid and complete application,” Boggess said. “That means gathering up those documents and then the application process doesn’t take that long when the documents are in front of you.”
The application review process includes verifying all the documentation- a process that takes time and could require additional verification from the applicant.
“We’re trying to verify there is a tenant/landlord relationship and what the amount owed to the landlord is so there is some review that goes into approving an applications,” Boggess said.
According to Boggess, thousands of applications are in the review phase and more are being submitted each day.
“It’s going to take four weeks from the outset to get your application approved, not only because of the time it takes to approve them, but also how many we have in the que- we have thousands of applications that are going through.”
The program will pay past due rent and utility bills dating back to April 1, 2020, and three months of advance rent as well. Rent payments will be made directly to the landlord.
“Utility payments will be paid directly to utility companies,” Boggess said. “There is a $300 internet stipend and that will be paid directly to the applicants.”
If eligible, some applicants could be able to use the forward rent payment to make other cash on hand available to meet other housing-related obligations.
“You can request forward rent payments for up to three months,” Boggess said. “If you qualify we can pay those three months rent and you can take that money and pay your credit card debt or get yourself caught up in other areas.”