Emergency Rental Assistance Program

[Matthew Mehr]

Good Afternoon, one of my tenants just reached out about applying for ERAP. I have no problem doing my part to assist but I was curious, is there any negative to the landlord by doing this? Also, while I was trying to fill it out it asks for how many months is he/she behind rent. Well, this tenant is not behind rent at all but will be going forward. Does this program help people that expect to be not able to pay future rent payments? Thank you! 

[John Warren]

@Matthew Mehr this is tricky for sure. If the tenant is about to be behind, why not wait to apply until the tenant is actually behind? I feel like this program is really messing up life for the decent tenants out there as they can't prove as much need. We have had several tenants receive aid, but the scary part is that all of the ones who did stopped paying any rent at all while they were waiting for the assistance. I personally cannot wait until this program goes away and this whole thing goes away. It only encourages poor behavior in my opinion and there are plenty of programs that help tenants in need here in Chicago anyways.