NEWS & EVENTS

Announcing Changes to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program

February 1, 2023

Effective February 1, 2023, the Monroe County Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) will no longer be accepting further applications.  Those in need of housing assistance are encouraged to call 2-1-1 from any phone to register for support, or PoconoInfo for housing resource referrals (570-517-3954). While Monroe County is no longer accepting further ERAP applications, it continues to work on earlier applications as funding and resources allow.

Since its launch in early 2021, Monroe County ERAP has assisted over 2,400 households and 7,300 individuals impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Administered by the Monroe County Fiscal Affairs office, Family Promise of Monroe, and Pocono Mountains United Way, the program helped families and individuals with rent and utility assistance to prevent evictions. Over $19,345,000 has been distributed in Monroe through two rounds of state ERAP funding, as well as several extra rounds of reallocations from other counties.  Consistently ranked near the top of the state in efficiency, Monroe’s ERAP program helped stabilize households and was just the hand-up that many families needed to effectively start over after the pandemic. The funds also helped stabilize the local economy by making sure landlords and property managers could pay property taxes and mortgage payments after going many months without collecting rental payments from COVID-impacted tenants.

We thank the Monroe County Commissioners for supporting this program and working with partner agencies to make it a success.

Further questions should be directed to the Monroe County ERAP hotline: 570-243-6677