Many say NC HOPE Program hasn’t followed through on promise to pay rent, utilities

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Many renters applied for North Carolina’s HOPE Program to pay their rent and utilities. They said the state approved them, but hasn’t followed through and it’s taking months.

Jennifer Weinstock rents an apartment in Cornelius. She told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke she lost her job and that her husband lost hours. They applied for the HOPE Program and the state approved them back in December. According to the paperwork, the state agreed to pay six months rent for roughly $6,500.

But about three months later, she was still waiting for the state to pay her landlord.

“There’s other things that I’ve got on my mind and this just adds to it. And I’m a very emotional person so tears build up in my eyes an awful lot a day,” she said.

“We signed the papers. We thought, ‘OK, that’s over and done with,’” Weinstock said. “I thought it was instant.”

Weinstock told Stoogenke her landlord has been very patient, but that all either can do is wait.

“What are we supposed to do now?” she said.

Inge Stepp is also worried. She’s a landlord, not Weinstock’s, but her story’s similar. She rents out a house in the Mountain Island area. According to her tenants’ paperwork, the state promised to pay her $6,250 on behalf of her tenants, but she said that weeks turned into months and no money.

She told Stoogenke she feels, “bamboozled Because I’ve been emailing. I’ve been calling, leaving messages, and nothing and so I’m at the point now where I’m like am I going to get any money?”

Obviously, she has bills of her own, including she says a mortgage on the house her tenants are renting. Stoogenke asked how long she can keep them there for free. Her response: “That’s the million dollar question.”

Stoogenke asked the state agency handling the HOPE program -- North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) -- for numbers. The agency said as of Monday, the state awarded -- which really means promised renters -- $139.7 million, but that it only paid $76.4 million for far. So just about 55%.

“It is incredibly frustrating for all of us, but no more so than for the person who’s waiting on the check ... Waiting on the assistance,” NCORR Chief Operating Officer Laura hogshead said.

The state says the goal was to approve people as quickly as possible, to give them -- and the landlords and utilities they owe money to -- peace of mind right away. But, the state, says 42,000 people applied for help and the state needs all the right paperwork in place -- like signed landlord and tenant agreements, W-9s and utility bills -- before it cuts each check. And that takes time.

The state says it made changes to speed things up. For example:

• It stopped using a third party to process claims and took that over this month.
• It says it hired more than 180 workers to tackle that and is hiring 100 more.
• It launched a web portal so renters can upload those crucial documents faster.

“So, once we’ve made the award and you have the award in your hand and you upload your W-9 and your landlord-tenant agreement to us, we can generally make payment within a week,” Hogshead said.

Here’s some general advice:

• Make sure you submit all that paperwork. The state says that’s the holdup in a lot of cases.
• Remember the eviction moratorium: Your landlord can’t kick you out for not paying rent the rest of this month.
• Remember: if your landlord signed the agreement, that’s a legal document. So, legally, the landlord has agreed to keep you and wait for the state to pay. If your landlord evicts you, he/she could be breaking the contract.
• If you have questions about the HOPE program, call 211.

Just so you’re clear: the HOPE program is closed. If you haven’t applied already, it’s too late. But renters should get another chance soon, two chances in fact:

1. Remember the stimulus bill Congress passed in December? It included money to help people pay rent. North Carolina gets $700 million of that. So there should be a second HOPE round coming up.

2. The President signed the stimulus package Thursday and that has a third round of rent assistance. North Carolina expects to get $500-$700 million of that.

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