Emergency Rental Assistance program extends a lifeline to struggling families

Struggling to pay rent and utility bills?

The City of Fort Wayne’s Emergency Rental Assistance program could be your saving grace.

Here's what you need to know.

If you're struggling to pay rent and utility bills the city of fort wayne's emergency rental assistance program could be your saving grace.

Fox 55's nico pennisi is live in fort wayne.nico, how does the city plan to help residents who are at risk of eviction?

Chris, the city received $8.1 million in funding for the program from the u.s. department of the treasury.

Since opening monday morning, 900 residents have already started the application.

3 take pkg:fort wayne residents barely keeping their head above water..."people are putting their money where they can, they're taking stimulus payments as and they're applying them, not enough."lutheran social services spokeswoman jillian xxx says that's where the emergency rental assistance program comes in."a lot of families are having to go down to one income and that dramatically impacts your budget and unfortunately puts families into situations where sometimes they can't make ends meet and their rent falls behind."the program aims to help those struggling to pay rent and utility bills because of hardships caused by the covid-19 pandemic.when renters fall behind on bills, they risk eviction..."we do have a high population of renters in fort wayne who are what we call housing cost burdens, so they pay more than 30 percent, even more than 50 percent of their income on rent and utilities."

Lindbergdirector of the office housing and neighborhood services kelly lindberg says this is a need that transcends all demographics.brightpoint director steve hoffman says even losing a little bit of income over the year can have serious consequences."they live paycheck to paycheck, their budgets are pretty right on the money."

Hoffmanhoffman hopes this program helps the hundreds and thousands of families who are desperately trying to get back on track.

The program will assist folks with past due rental payments and up to 3 months of future payments.

As well as, past due utility bills for up to 12 months.in fort wayne i'm nico pennisi fox 55 news in order to qualify for the program, residents must:rent within fort wayne city limits have a household income at or below 56-thousand,9-hundred dollars...for a family of four.

And a person must be experiencing financial hardship caused