Written by Amanda Angulo
After several Democrat elected officials in San Diego promised rental assistance and the millions of dollars allocated for it, both the county and the city of San Diego have pointed out that they may not be able to fulfill their promise.
People who have been applying to the COVID-19 Housing Stability Assistance Program, such as tenants and landlords, have claimed that despite their best efforts to apply, the program’s website is confusing and difficult to apply, and the funds ultimately would fall short to them. In addition, although the county had allocated $107 million for the program, they only intend to spend $43.8 million on rental assistance based on over 12,000 applications received.
More on the issues of the program’s website, tenants and landlords claim that the application and submissions of documentation are difficult in practice and when calling for assistance, there is rarely any help.
“The city hired a bunch of people to answer the phone,” said an employee for a San Diego property management company, Lucinda Lilley. “The problem is the people who answered the phone didn’t have any answers.”
A recipient of the Housing Commission assistance, Kat Blue, claimed she faced several complications once she became eligible for her funds. Her landlord was unable to access the portal and when they would both call for assistance, no one was able to help or provide any answers.
Landlord, Paul Krueger, said that his check was delayed to do confusing steps as to what was needed, mostly due to the poorly designed website.
While many believe that landowners are rich and will be well off either way, it is just completely untrue. Most still have to pay mortgages on their rental homes as well as their own homes, giving them little room to be making an actual profit. Krueger’s family only made $100 a month in profit.
“We lost $12,000 that we would’ve otherwise had,” Krueger stated. “We have two mortgages to pay and expenses and all the regular stuff. We can’t absorb it. It’s easy to say these are big companies that own a lot of units and are heartless, but I think a significant number of units are mom-and-pop rental units.”
