Birmingham giving $6.6 million in assistance to first-time applicants struggling with rent, utilities

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - The City of Birmingham is working to help even more families struggling with paying for rent and utilities.

They are giving out an extra $6.6 million in assistance. It’s part of the city’s rental assistance program for families struggling from the pandemic, but now with inflation, they said the need for help is larger than before.

“This will allow us a wider and broader impact than we have in the past,” Director of Community Development Meghan Venable-Thomas said. “We are taking new applicants to be able to really spread around the assistance and the impact that we can have in the community.”

The city has put in $6.6 million more into Birmingham’s rental assistance program, but you can’t have applied for the program before.

“This allows folks who maybe weren’t struggling in the past, but are struggling to be able to receive assistance that they would need for very important utilities as well as their rent and hopefully put them on the right track, back to being able to be supported.”

Venable-Thomas said the last round of money helped more than 2,000 residents and they hope to help even more this round. She said they will help until the money runs out.

“We are all still being impacted by COVID,” she said. “Now, with inflation and all these other things, and as we have seen with new variants, COVID is not going away, so people are still being impacted.”

The quicker you apply, the quicker the city can help pay your rent and utilities directly.

“We are hoping that if you are applying now, you’ll be able to receive support in the next few months.”

The deadline to apply is July 29.

Click here to see if you qualify and apply.

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