Orange County Opens Second Round of Emergency Rental Assistance

Laguna Beach, CA - A second round of funding is now open for renters through the County of Orange Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program. The ERA Program provides funding to assist households that are unable to pay rent and utilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ERA Program must largely be used for direct financial assistance, including rent, overdue rent and utilities and home energy costs and will provide a maximum financial assistance of $10,000 per eligible household to pay for overdue rent and past due utilities. Applications will be accepted until April 30, 2021, or until funding is exhausted, whichever comes first. If you have already submitted an application for the ERA Program during the month of February 2021, a regional provider will follow-up with you directly.

Eligibility criteria includes, but is not limited to:

• Rental households who can demonstrate that their housing stability is at risk due to unpaid rent or utility bills due to COVID-19
• Rental households’ combined income must be at or below 80% area median income (AMI). Please visit http://era.211oc.org to find the 80% AMI level for your household size

Please know the ERA program does not apply to homeowners and past due mortgage payments, utilities, or energy costs and is solely to be used for renter households.

Orange County landlords are able to apply on behalf of their tenants, as long as the tenant co-signs the application. To find more information or to get ready to apply, our residents may call 2-1-1 to receive assistance in multiple languages, visit https://era.211oc.org/ or text ERA to 898211.

The County of Orange was allocated $65,576,556 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) for the implementation of the ERA Program. The cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine received direct allocations from the Treasury and will be implementing their own programs.