About 10,000 New Hampshire households have received emergency rental assistance this year, but about 4,000 applicants are still waiting for that same help, according to data shared by New Hampshire Housing.
Since the New Hampshire Emergency Rental Assistance Program program launched in March, over 19,000 applicants have sought financial help to cover rent, utilities or other approved housing-related expenses. Less than 1,000 have been denied, but about 4,000 of those applications have been withdrawn, many due to missing information, according to New Hampshire Housing.
The program is meant to help people catch up on rent or utility payments during the pandemic. People can apply for money to cover past-due rent, including legal or late fees, as well as up to three months of future rent and other housing-related costs.
The state’s five Community Action Partnership agencies are handling the bulk of the work of administering the program, with help from New Hampshire Housing. So far, they've distributed over $73 million in total, and approved applications have received about $7,400 on average.
Southern New Hampshire Services — which serves the two most populous counties in the state, Hillsborough and Rockingham — has seen the highest demand for the program.
As of Dec. 7, about 2,100 aid applications made through SNHS were still pending, though more than half of those were “currently being processed” — meaning that they were either awaiting some kind of documentation or had pending payments.
In recent months, that agency has worked with with district courts in Manchester and Nashua to provide on-site application assistance to people with pending eviction cases before each court.
More information on the program and how to apply can be found at this site, or by calling 2-1-1.
