County has approximately $10 million to deploy for eviction prevention, rental and utility assistance; tenants under 50% AMI no longer need court documentation.
The Prince George’s County Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) continues to accept tenant and landlord ERAP applications for eviction prevention. The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) strongly encourages landlords to file for ERAP assistance on behalf of the tenant household prior to initiating a court-filed eviction process against the household for failure to pay rent or tenant holding over.
Tenant households with total household income at or below 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI), will not be required to provide court-filed eviction documents. Tenant households at or between 51 to 80% AMI, will be required to submit at least an eviction court summons and/or a court judgment, along with their ERAP application. In accordance with U.S. Treasury guidelines, DHCD will prioritize ERAP applicants at extremely low and very low-income levels, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Please note that DHCD will review and validate all household income information. Any attempts to withhold household income will delay the review of an ERAP tenant application.
The submission of an application does not guarantee approval for ERAP assistance. All applications are carefully reviewed and subject to federal eligibility requirements. Applications are also subject to the availability of funding at the time of processing. Further, if a tenant or a member of the tenant household has received prior ERAP assistance, whether through the County or other organization, provision of ERAP assistance cannot exceed a total of 18 months.
To date, DHCD has assisted over 11,000 households, deploying over $108 million in ERAP rent and utility assistance payments to landlords on behalf of their respective tenant households since March 2021. These payments have enabled tenants to stay housed while assisting landlords in receiving property income.
Calls and questions can be made to the ERAP Call Center via phone at 301-883-6504 (option 9). Residents can find more information, including a list of non-profit organizations that can assist with completing and submitting an ERAP application, the chart for AMI income levels, and videos on how to complete an application on the DHCD ERAP webpage. Landlords and tenants can apply via the ERAP Application Portal.