Update on Cobb rental assistance relief funds; eviction FAQs

Submitted information:

Last week [March 2], the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved emergency funding to provide additional rent relief for qualified Cobb residents who have been adversely affected by COVID-19 and fees related to that process. To watch a short video from the BOC meeting, click here.
This funding in the amount of $22,880,880 is available through federal Emergency Rental Assistance grants approved by the U.S. Congress and signed into law on Dec. 27. The grants are designed to help those impacted by the pandemic, and struggling to recover, stay in their homes.
As part of the additional federal emergency COVID-19 relief bill, state and local governments with more than 200,000 residents were allocated funds to provide assistance with rent, rental arrears, utilities and home energy costs, utilities and home energy costs arrears and other expenses related to housing.

This program is separate from the CARES rental and mortgage assistance approved by the Cobb BOC in 2020.
Who is eligible to seek assistance?
An “eligible household” is defined as a renter household in which at least one or more individuals meets the following criteria:

Qualifies for unemployment or has experienced a reduction in household income, incurred significant costs or experienced a financial hardship due to COVID-19

Demonstrates a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability

Has a household income at or below 80 percent of the area median

Service providers will prioritize applications received from eligible households if one of the following conditions exist:

The household income is at or below 50 percent of the area median

One or more individuals within the household have been unemployed for the 90-day period preceding the application date

For what can these funds be used?
Assistance can be provided for rent, rental arrears, utilities and home energy costs, utilities and home energy costs arrears and other expenses related to housing.
Who will handle applications for the funds?
The same groups who worked with the county on the CARES assistance will also handle this new grant program. Those groups are:

HomeFree-USA

Star-C Corporation

MUST Ministries

The Center for Family Resources

Sweetwater Mission

When can I apply?
Those groups are sorting through the new program requirements and developing applications and we hope to have them available soon. We will post the latest when that information is available and keep updates on our COVID Assistance Center page at cobbcounty.org/communications/news/cobb-covid-assistance-center.

Cobb Magistrate Court Judge Brendan Murphy also provided the following update about how eviction cases will be proceeding:

(1) The Cobb County Board of Commissioners appropriated approximately $22.8 million in federal rental assistance funding to five (5) total providers: The Center for Family Resources, HomeFree-USA’s Cobb County HomeSaver for Renters, MUST Ministries, Star-C, and Sweetwater Mission. Tenants and/or Landlords may apply for the program through any provider as the terms and eligibility requirements are identical. A provider will also be available at the courthouse each Friday when dispossessory proceedings are scheduled to ensure that everyone that qualifies has an opportunity to apply.

(2) In a Feb. 23 Order Amending Courthouse Safety Guidelines for all Classes of Courts and Reinstating the Plan to Resume Jury Trials in the Cobb Judicial Circuit, Chief Superior Court Judge Robert D. Leonard, II vacated his Dec. 22 order limiting in-person proceedings and allowed courts to “resume in-person proceedings…in strict compliance with public health guidelines and guidance issued by the Supreme Court.”

(3) The CDC’s limited, temporary halt in certain residential evictions remains in place until “at least March 31, 2021.”

(4) The Magistrate Court is returning to the Fall 2020 dispossessory hearing scheduling procedures. Residential, non-payment cases will not be automatically set but may be heard by written request. All other dispossessory cases with an Answer filed will be automatically set for a hearing.
Please click here for updated FAQs re: eviction cases in the Magistrate Court of Cobb County. If anyone has a question about the status or scheduling of a particular case, please call the Magistrate Court Clerk’s Office Civil Division at (770) 528-8900.