In Miami-Dade, $10 million in rent relief was ready to go. Now it’s on hold until July

By the end of June, Miami-Dade’s Housing Department had planned to award $10 million in federal rent-relief money to as many as 15,000 tenants facing possible eviction over the economic calamity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

But a parliamentary showdown this week delayed those plans.

The County Commission was set to vote on the proposal Tuesday. That vote didn’t happen when a commissioner, mayoral candidate Esteban “Steve” Bovo, exercised his right to block any legislation submitted late for the day’s agenda.

“Oh, that’s not nice,” Chairwoman Audrey Edmonson told Bovo after he announced his plan to invoke the “four-day rule” and delay a vote until the commission’s next meeting. Bovo responded: “I apologize. There are a lot of unanswered questions.”

The blocked legislation infuriated affordable-housing advocates, who warned the delay will leave thousands of renters vulnerable if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t extend the current ban on evictions.

“It’s a race,” said Jorge Damian de la Paz, who heads an affordable-housing initiative at the University of Miami. “If it’s not extended, Miami will see a wave of evictions.”

“I’m deeply concerned,” said Alana Greer, director of Miami’s Community Justice Project. “The need is incredible, and it’s growing. We need those funds desperately.”

Bovo noted Miami-Dade has the same eviction ban in place within county limits and that lifting Florida’s moratorium won’t affect local tenants unless the county ends its ban as well. “I don’t see that happening before the end of summer,” he said.

Miami-Dade plans to use $10 million in federal CARES Act dollars to fund the proposed relief program, a portion of the $474 million Washington reserved for the county for general coronavirus costs and expenses.

The relief would cover a portion of a month’s rent for households considered low-income — earning less than $74,000 for a family of four — and who can show lost income from the coronavirus crisis.

The program would be the largest rent-relief program in Miami-Dade, and open to all residents who qualify.

Miami, Miami Beach and other cities have already launched similar programs with smaller pools of money, and saw applications quickly overwhelm available funds. Miami-Dade also expects its rental-relief program to be overwhelmed once it gets a chance to launch.

“We know there’s going to be a big demand,” said Michael Liu, the county’s housing director. His agency planned to allow online applications through Friday next week, with the assumption that the $10 million would be used up after four days.

While the original plan made all of the federal dollars available countywide, sponsor Eileen Higgins altered the rules to allocate the money equally among the 13 commission districts.

She said she added the change to secure support from commissioners, including Bovo, who have insisted on distributing coronavirus aid equally among the districts, even though some have higher poverty rates than others.

At Tuesday’s online meeting, Higgins said the delayed vote will hurt renters as well as landlords, who would receive the dollars from Miami-Dade once a tenant is approved for the allocation.

“Obviously we have a rent crisis. That’s a trickle up problem. When someone isn’t paying rent, a landlord isn’t paying their mortgage, possibly, or isn’t able to maintain their building,” she said. “We expect so many applications.”

Liu said the average award would probably fall between $900 and $1,000, and that as many as 15,000 households could receive help from Miami-Dade. The money gets paid to landlords, who can apply the funds to back rent, Liu said.

He said the department wanted to launch the effort just a week after commission passage in order to have recipients selected before July rents came due.

“Now it won’t be open until mid-July,” Liu said, assuming passage once the commission meets again on July 8. He said that will have rent relief targeting August bills, the sixth month of an economic crisis that began with countywide business shutdowns in March.

The legislation needed to be posted publicly the week before the June 16 meeting to comply with the commission’s “four-day rule” governing late-filed items. Legislation placed on the agenda within that four-day window must be rolled over to the next meeting if even one commissioner demands it.

Bovo called the process rushed and said he had questions about how the rental assistance would be managed and whether Miami-Dade was clear on its priorities for the federal dollars.

He noted cities want a share of the CARES allocation. “I am not sure that has been addressed,” he said. Bovo said he also wants a ban on Miami-Dade adding property taxes to expand the program, and more details on how applicants are selected.

A Republican running as a fiscal conservative in the nonpartisan mayoral race, Bovo also cast the proposed rent-relief effort as an example of government eager to spend more. “These government programs, that’s all they do,” he said at the meeting. “They add money.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2020 at 7:30 PM.