What is rental assistance?
If you’re facing difficulties paying your monthly rent, you aren’t alone. At the local, city, and state levels, financial resources, counseling, and assistance are available to you. Help for rent & utility bills in Georgia, Atlanta, and Fulton County is linked below.
State, city, county, non-profit or religious resources haven’t been drained yet. Eligibility requirements and benefits offered will vary from county to county, so don’t be discouraged if your friend in Forsyth county tells you they can’t find anything, and you live in Fulton county. When you find specific programs you are eligible for, jot down important dates on your calendar, and start getting together proof of income and other required documentation.
How do I know if I’m eligible for rental assistance?
Eligibility will vary by county. Depending on your situation, you may be eligible to receive financial assistance with your monthly rent or other forms of relief on your mortgage.
Use this dashboard from the National Low Income Housing Coalition to find the different rental assistance programs available in GA so you can become familiar with their eligibility guidelines.
Eviction in Georgia
Unfortunately, the eviction moratorium has lapsed in Georgia, and does not look like it will be reintroduced anywhere, any time soon. A landlord in Georgia has to give verbal or written notice, but this isn’t a protection from immediate or imminent eviction. This is because the law doesn’t actually specify how much notice must be given before you’re evicted,which leads to bad faith situations where landlords might claim you’ve been notified and either move your things or expect you to move out immediately. Visit the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau's housing assistance portal for relief, local assistance programs protections, and key deadlines, especially if you’re at risk of eviction.
Local Resources
- Georgia Rental Assistance is your primary governmental portal for rental assistance and information.
- There’s more info about the Georgia Emergency Rental Assistance program on the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget website.
- If you’ve never evaluated Section 8 (the Housing Choice Voucher program), now is a great time. And the GA site has a bunch of listings to help you get on wait lists.
- At the local level, the Fulton County ERA program applications closes August 15th 2022, so if you’ve gotten an application in, congrats!
- The Atlanta Apartment association also has a resource page detailing rental assistance in Georgia.
The KIPP Metro Atlanta schools domain also has a gigantic list of agencies, churches, and other organizations that provide some form of assistance in the area. The list was posted a few years ago, so some of the organizations may not still be providing help, but many absolutely still are!
