Lane County Covid-19 Update

From Lane County:

A sharp increase in housing instability as a result of COVID-19-related economic challenges is affecting people in Lane County. Legislators at the national and state levels are working to create funding programs to help ease the burden on renters. Last Friday, Lane County was notified that it will receive $900,000 per month until December 2020 to expand the rent assistance program. There is more detail regarding that funding in the Rent Assistance update below, along with business-related recovery updates.

Rent Assistance

To date, 1,295 eligibility applications have been completed. An additional 507 were either incomplete or ineligible.

Lane County is unable to accept additional eligibility applications for rent assistance at this time. Lane County and its agency partners are working with eligible applicants to complete the full application and disburse the current funds as quickly as possible. Those who have applied for and do not receive assistance from the first funding round will be placed on a waitlist for the next round of funding.

As announced by the Emergency Board of the Oregon Legislature on Friday, Lane County will receive approximately $900,000 per month through December 2020 for rent assistance beginning in June. The new funding, which comes from the federally-funded State of Oregon Coronavirus Relief Fund, will be used for the current waitlist and for new applicants when the eligibility application re-opens (likely with some adjustments given federal funding requirements).

Please continue to check www.LaneCountyOR.gov/rent for updates.

Energy Assistance

To date, more than 522 applications for energy assistance have been submitted online or with community partner agencies. A total of $575,000 is available for Lane County residents affected by COVID-19 through LP20 CARES, which is federally funded. 

The program provides qualifying households with a one-time payment toward their energy bill. It may be applied to electricity, natural gas, home heating oil, propane, wood pellets and wood. 

Households may find out more about eligibility requirements and place themselves on the waiting list for funding by visiting www.lanecounty.org/LIHEAPCares. The waitlist remains open, but households are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Community agencies assisting with the program will begin to close the waitlist as their agency receives the maximum number of applications that it can accept.

Business Assistance

Business Oregon Grant Update

Business Oregon has approved our request to combine our Round 1 award of $100,000 with any award received from Round 2 of the Emergency Business Assistance Match Fund. We expect to learn the results of Round 2 from Business Oregon this week, which was applied for by Community LendingWorks on behalf of Lane County. If fully awarded in Round 2, an additional $700,000 will be made available to eligible Lane County small businesses as grants. This funding will be focused on rural businesses, sole proprietors, and historically disadvantaged businesses.

The application process will be designed to incorporate equity at every stage of the program in order to address many of the issues with the “first come, first served” model. There will be a substantial marketing period to notify eligible businesses across the county of the program and how to apply, followed by a week-long application period. A lottery of eligible applicants will be conducted to select grant awardees. We look forward to sharing more information on the program and how to apply soon.

Lane County businesses looking for assistance are encouraged to contact Lane County’s Community and Economic Development team at lcbusconcerns@lanecountyor.gov. We have a team of staff available to answer reopening questions, provide the latest business resources, or to connect you with our business support partners in the region.