Gov. Doug Ducey announced a new effort to help renters stay in their homes Feb. 9.
Through nearly $500 million the state got from the most recent federally-approved COVID relief package, Arizona is allocating money to help pay rent and utilities, both current and what’s past due, as well as some other expenses related to housing.
Large cities and counties will get their money directly, while the state Department of Economic Security will serve the smaller ones.
According to Giridhar Mallya, that kind of assistance will be especially helpful in the Phoenix area.
Mallya is a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and says data from Eviction Lab shows there’ve been a lot of eviction filings in Phoenix, even during the pandemic.
The Show spoke with him earlier to get a sense of what kinds of policies might help reduce that, both here and nationwide.
