More Orange residents could soon qualify for rental assistance from the city after officials overhauled eligibility criteria to give preference to struggling older residents after staff found the program hasn\u2019t helped anyone since its inception.<\/p>\n
The program has been around for over a year, but because of strict criteria to qualify, it failed to make an impact \u2013 according to a staff report, the program has received zero qualified applicants since its establishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the launch of the TBRA Program in January 2025, the City has not received any applications from households that qualify under the adopted eligibility criteria, resulting in no utilization of the allocated HOME funds. After approximately one year of inactivity, staff conducted a programmatic review to determine whether the lack of utilization was attributable to a lack of community need or to structural barriers within the program design,\u201d reads a staff report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Previously, residents had to meet a list of strict criteria to be considered for the assistance, including being an Orange city resident, referral from a supportive service, being denied for CalAIM assistance and having income below 80% of the median.<\/p>\n
City staff found those barriers prevented the program from getting off the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff determined that the requirement to first apply for and be denied CalAIM assistance created an unintended barrier to access that limited the program\u2019s ability to respond to housing opportunities,\u201d reads the staff report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At a meeting earlier this month, city officials voted 5-0 to overhaul program eligibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, applicants must have income below 60% the area median<\/a> \u2013 $55,075 \u2013 and no longer have to prove being denied for CalAIM \u2013 a program for Medi-Cal recipients that looks to expand care beyond doctor office visits<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Additionally, more considerations will be offered to those who are 62 or above, homeless or at risk of homelessness, or fleeing domestic and dating violence, sexual assault or stalking.<\/p>\n The rent assistance program provides a one-time subsidy to residents who need help covering security and utility deposits, all funded through a couple of federal grants that aren\u2019t guaranteed every year.<\/p>\n The program is funded by a federal program, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban<\/p>\n Development, specifically the Community Development Block Grant and the HOME<\/p>\n Investment Partnerships programs.<\/p>\n From these funds, $150,000 was identified in 2023 to support the rent assistance fund\u2019s formation.<\/p>\n However, because the funds are left over from previous budgets\u2019 HOME entitlement funds, they are not guaranteed yearly.<\/p>\n According to an email from Charlene Cheng, public affairs and information manager for the City of Orange, there are currently no plans to replenish the program\u2019s funds once they run out.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the email, there is about $133,000 remaining.<\/p>\n \u201cFuture funding for the program would depend on City Council action each entitlement year,\u201d Cheng wrote in the email to the Voice of OC.<\/p>\n Several cities in OC already fund their own rental assistance programs, like Westminster<\/a>, Fullerton<\/a> and Garden Grove<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More Orange residents could soon qualify for rental assistance from the city after officials overhauled eligibility criteria to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,53047,114099],"class_list":["post-316103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-orange-city-council","tag-rental-assistance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}