New Housing Relief Program for Strafford County Residents

Posted on: June 30, 2020 - 9:57am

Flyer for Community Action Partnership Housing Relief Program

Community Action Partnership of Strafford County announces the release of applications for the New Hampshire Housing Relief Program on June 30th. Applications may be found at www.capnh.org or www.straffordcap.org/.  The program is designed to keep people from losing their housing and to secure or maintain permanent housing. Assistance is available to anyone with no income limitations. The Housing Relief Program has two components for assistance:

The one-time assistance grants can be used to assist households with:

  • Past-due rent from April 2020 forward for households that fell behind on rent due to either increased household expenses or lost household revenue as a result to COVID-19;
  • Past-due housing/household related expenses that may impact an individual’s/families’ ability to remain housed; and/or
  • Other housing related one-time expenses that if not paid will impact the ability to maintain housing. 
  • The grant is not to exceed $2,500 and is conditioned on COVID-19 related loss of household income or increased household expenses. This grant program is targeted to those households who will be able to maintain their housing without assistance after the one-time assistance payment.  

The short-term rental assistance program will provide short-term rental assistance to maintain or secure permanent housing. This includes assistance for:

  • Past-due rent that was not paid due to a COVID-19-related inability to pay and ongoing rental assistance, on a short-term basis using progressive engagement. The rental assistance will decrease over time as households regain stability; or
  • First month’s rent and ongoing short-term rental assistance to assist with initial costs to facilitate the transition of working households from shelters into permanent housing.

Both the one-time grants and the short-term rental assistance will be coupled with regional case management services to help connect households to appropriate services as defined by the household and the agency. Program payments will be made directly to the landlord or provider, and this program will end by December 30, 2020. As part of the program, residents will be asked to provide copies of eviction notices, demand for rent, past due bills, and other expenses incurred due to COVID-19 for verification and payment.