Clayton County plans to use $1 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to try and keep residents in the south metro Atlanta community from becoming homeless.
The Clayton Commission on Tuesday approved a resolution setting aside the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act money, as the Dec. 31 deadline for the national moratorium on evictions approaches and thousands of residents face the possibility of being kicked out of dwellings next year if they can’t get help.
“There are a lot of people in distress out there,” Clayton County Chairman Jeff Turner said. “We’re going to help as many people as we possibly can.”
The county’s move aligns with efforts across metro Atlanta to use millions in CARES Act funding to pay rent for residents who have lost income because of layoffs, reduced work hours or other financial difficulties that have resulted from the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic.
Counties and cities across the metro area, including Gwinnett, Cobb and the city of Atlanta, have raced to launch programs that connect residents with financial help before they are thrown out on the streets.
The help is particularly important for Clayton, where renters make up half of the county’s households, said Russell Spears and Brian Hunt, two lecturers in economics at Clayton State University.
The county, which has had the metro area’s highest unemployment rate throughout the pandemic, was already seeing nearly 11 evictions a day prior to the state shutdown in March.
The federal moratorium on evictions caused county dispossessions to fall below 2019 numbers, but it likely masks a problem that when lifted could lead to an explosion of people losing their homes in 2021, Hunt said.
“This $1 million is symbolic and a very large number,” Hunt said. “But is it enough to kind of alleviate or keep those renters afloat over the next 30 days?”
Clayton County school leaders also have warned that they expect growth in the rate of students who move from school to school during the same year because of unstable housing — from about 4% annually to 10% a year because of the end of the eviction moratorium.
More than 4,300 dispossession cases have been filed with the Clayton County Magistrate Court since March and 930 have been granted a hearing, said Clayton County Chief Financial Officer Romana Thurman Bivins.
County leaders will begin discussing eligibility criteria and when the money will be distributed during a meeting on Thursday. The payments will likely go directly to landlords — the method used by Gwinnett County, Bivins said.
“We looked at what they did and we are kind of following that model,” she said.
