Summary

King County Executive Dow Constantine today sent the sixth COVID-19 supplemental budget to the King County Council. The $91 million budget includes $45 million in additional rental assistance, $5 million to support community organizations, and funding for COVID-19 vaccination sites.

Story

King County Executive Dow Constantine today transmitted his sixth supplemental budget relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $91 million measure funds one-time investments that will provide additional funds for rental assistance to help ensure more families can stay in their homes, and a new revolving fund to support direct reimbursement for community groups.

Included in the budget is $45 million for King County’s rental assistance program, which has helped more than 9,000 families stay in their homes during the pandemic. The funding is provided via the federal CARES Act and adds to the original $41 million appropriated in 2020.

The budget also would establish a $5 million revolving fund to provide up-front investments to community-based organizations in advance of federal or other reimbursements. This will allow funding to be quickly put to work in the community instead of waiting for a lengthy reimbursement process.

“Helping more than 9,000 families avoid eviction with our rental assistance program is a major success, and this budget will help even more families be able to stay in their homes as we recover from the pandemic,” said Executive Constantine. “While we’re making real progress in distributing the vaccine, there’s still a broad, coordinated response required and this budget helps ensure our efforts to defeat the outbreak can continue.”

Other notable investments include:

• $13.9 million to continue funding Public Health – Seattle & King County’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including testing and contact tracing efforts.
• $8.7 million to purchase additional personal protective equipment supplies.
• $11.2 million to fund King County’s vaccination effort, including high-volume sites and 19 mobile strike teams.

This is the sixth supplemental budget submitted by Executive Constantine during the pandemic, and follows five submitted in 2020, all of which were passed by the King County Council.

NOTE: March 3, 2021 – King County is planning to expand and re-launch a rental assistance program to support households economically impacted by the coronavirus due to illness, loss of income or unemployment who have been unable to meet rent obligations. The program seeks to help those who are at risk or may become at risk for eviction. King County anticipates launching an expanded Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Program (EPRAP) program by April 1, 2021. The draft goals of the revised program and description of the opportunities to participate, either as a provider or as a recipient, will be shared with community members to gather community input prior to finalizing and launching the program. Those materials will be available on this website. If you are interested and would like to receive information on the program, please complete this interest form: EPRAP Interest Form. If you have questions, email DCHSRentalAssistance@kingcounty.gov or call 206-263-3481.

Quotes

Helping more than 9,000 families avoid eviction with our rental assistance program is a major success, and this budget will help even more families be able to stay in their homes as we recover from the pandemic. While we're making real progress in distributing the vaccine, there's still a broad, coordinated response required and this budget helps ensure our efforts to defeat the outbreak can continue.

For more information, contact:

Chase Gallagher, Executive Office, 206-263-8537
For more information on Rental Assistance, 206-263-9053