The Warren County Commissioners have authorized funding to continue a joint initiative with the Department of Human Services aimed at providing targeted rent assistance.

Last year, the county was awarded funds through the federal coronavirus relief CARES Act to fund the program, which was open to everyone and not just Human Services’s clients.

The commissioners agreed to an emergency funds distribution policy on Wednesday to keep it going.

Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said it is “part of continuing service for (the) rent program.”

He said the program has gone fairly well but the CARES Act funds allocated to the initiative are “essentially running out.”

Recent federal relief legislation, he noted, included a continued moratorium on evictions until at least March but Eggleston said he has concerns “overall of the ability to deal with what’s going to be a lot of challenges with housing” for “indigent” members of the community as well as those who have lost employment during the pandemic.

“The funding source is going to be initially endowment funds,” Eggleston said, “to be used for persons in poverty or financially challenged.”

Kafferlin said some funding from the latest coronavirus relief bill will be able to be utilized for this program. Those funds would be utilized before the county’s endowment funds would be tapped.

“(It’s a) way to keep it going and kind of help people,” Chief Clerk Pam Matve said.

Kafferlin stressed that the funding is “not general fund or tax dollars by any means.”

Should the program continue and additional funding be needed, Eggleston said he would approach the board of commissioners to consider additional funding.

Back in June, Ronna Tipton, Forest-Warren Human Services administrator, told the commissioners that the county was awarded $117,000 up to $356,000 in funding specifically for rent relief.

“This is a vital program for many of the folks we work with at Forest-Warren Human Services,” she said. “They have been hit hard by this pandemic, as unemployment has reached 17% overall in the county and so many people are finding it hard to make ends meet.”

Criteria included a loss of at least 30 percent of income since March or the receipt of unemployment compensation funds, in addition to average median income guidelines.