INDIANAPOLIS - Last month, the city of Indianapolis announced it would use $15 million it received from the CARES Act COVID Relief Fund to help thousands of Marion County residents with rent. Over the course of just three days, the program received over 10,000 applications, but some who applied are having trouble with the program.
Last week, Kimberly Thomas received an email, providing her with a code that her landlord needed to use to complete her application.
“They tried to go in and process it but when they looked at it, it came in as my child’s dependent name, which is on my lease and the application,” said Thomas. “So the rental office contacted me and said that they cannot process because it’s not in my name.”
Thomas replied back to the rental assistance email, to which the city responded:
“There have been several applicants that have had this challenge. The system does not allow edits after you submit the application… The only opportunity to be considered if your landlord will not complete as is — we can invite you to re-submit an application once the application reopens.”
“So now there’s a glitch that happened in your system that you were aware of that you could’ve fixed but you didn’t,” said Thomas. “So you’re telling us to wait another two or three months?”
As a single parent who is currently unemployed and looking for work she said, “We are trying to hang in there and stay in the fight. But it’s like, help us. If you said you were going to help us, help us fight this fight.”
With the state’s eviction moratorium now expired, she said, “We are depressed and we are down because we don’t know what to do. We have mouths to feed. We need to cover these kids. We don’t know what to do no more.”
She and others are now at risk of being kicked out of their homes if they don’t receive the rental help, and receive it soon.
“Hopefully this thing can get fixed," Thomas said. "Not just for me, but I’m crying out for other parents that’s in the situation. We need help.”
We reached out to the city program, and a city spokesperson tells WRTV they are working on a “workaround.” The problem was in how the resident inputted the application. Rental assistance program staff are now reaching out to her landlord to work through the issue.
