United Way of Anchorage is hustling to get out $7 million in rent and mortgage aid by Dec. 30

United Way of Anchorage is working to get the remaining money for rental and mortgage assistance out the door before a Dec. 30 deadline to avoid having to send any money back to the federal government.

As of Thursday, it had about $7 million left, and had disbursed $13 million.

“Any way we can find ways to get the most money out possible, that’s what we are doing,” United Way spokesman Jason Grenn said.

Over the past few weeks, United Way has been disbursing several hundreds of thousands of dollars per day, and so far has provided checks for more than 6,000 individuals and families.

United Way will take new applications through Friday, then spend next week processing them and getting the checks out through its partner, Lutheran Social Services of Alaska.

“We have a pretty high burn rate to be able to get those dollars to zero, but we are confident we can do that,” United Way of Anchorage President and CEO Clark Halvorson said.

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Chris Schutte, Anchorage’s economic and community development director, said the program was designed to stretch to the end of December, unlike the business grant programs where the city tried to get the money out as quickly as possible.

“You don’t want to run out of money at the end of November and then have no funds,” Schutte said.

Over the summer, the city allocated $20 million in federal aid for the program.

On Thursday, Grenn sent out an announcement trying to get the attention of landlords who have tenants behind on their rent. It’s what he called “landlord batching,” and he said it has been effective. By dealing directly with one landlord in Anchorage, United Way was able to pay rent for 38 of his tenants in 10 days.

“We’ve learned how to make this program most effective, most efficient,” Grenn said.

The city started the rental relief program in June, which gave people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic $1,000 for rent. Eventually, the program was expanded to allow people to reapply for a total of three $1,000 checks.

United Way is also calling people who previously applied for one check to see if they are still eligible for a second or third check.

In November, Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson said funding for the program would be depleted by the end of December.

She called on the Assembly to reallocate CARES Act money to pass a $15.4 million economic relief package, including $7.4 million more for rental and mortgage relief.

Unlike the initial $20 million, the $7.4 million will be available into 2021 because the city used CARES Act money for first-responder payroll, and then used $7.4 million offset in general fund dollars to finance the program. That removes the Dec. 30 deadline for that portion of the funding.

Schutte said the new influx of money will allow the program to pick back up in January.

United Way of Anchorage said people seeking assistance can call 211 for help accessing the program, or they can send an email to rentsupport@ak.org.