The City of Fresno has received nearly $35 million from the federal and state governments to provide emergency rental assistance grants to improve housing stability in these unprecedented and uncertain economic times. The City along with six community-benefit organizations (CBOs) will process the applications and provide relief to both landlords and tenants.
The City of Fresno’s Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program will begin on March 15, 2021 and is available to residents in the City of Fresno that have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 and are unable to pay their full amount of rent and utilities from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. Subject to availability of funding, the City of Fresno will pay 80% of an eligible tenant’s past due rent owed if the landlord accepts that as full payment of the debt and agrees to forgive the remaining 20% balance from that same time period. For landlords who do not participate in this program, the City will pay the eligible tenant 25% of the rent owed between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 to provide the eligible tenant the protections afforded to them by SB 91.