For the last several years, Community Action Council has been working in coordination with the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG) to distribute COVID-19-related federal funds for assistance.
Since February of 2021, the Council has assisted LFUCG in the distribution of more than $52 million in rent and utility assistance to nearly 7,000 households. The funds have now been exhausted, meaning the program will end at the end of November 2023 because no more federal funds are available for us to request and use for the program.
Federal funding for this program was temporary. Funds came to the Council from LFUCG, who received the money from the US Treasury Department’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Lexington-Fayette County was able to keep operating longer than most communities by accepting additional unspent funds from the state of Kentucky’s share on multiple occasions. Ultimately, the program served one out of every 10 renter households in Fayette County and was enormously successful at keeping people in their homes throughout the pandemic and beyond. The number of eviction judgments issued in Lexington is nearly 35 percent lower than in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
In February of this year, the program shifted to provide assistance to people with active eviction cases in District Court in order to continue to prevent as many evictions as possible. Households with active eviction cases can continue to reach out to Legal Aid of the Bluegrass or the Kentucky Equal Justice Center for assistance.
We are proud of the work we have done and thank LFUCG and the many other community partners for working together to keep families safe, healthy, and housed during the pandemic.
