COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program

About the Program

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Special Message Regarding Rent Relief COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

All Chicago is no longer accepting applications for this round of the Rent Relief COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

The federal funding that All Chicago received for its Rent Relief COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program will be fully spent after we process existing applications that have been approved for funding. All Chicago received over 20,000 applications for the program, and we are able to assist approximately 2,000 households.  Many of the 20,000 applications that we received were for applicants who were not eligible or had previously been provided rental assistance under a similar program.  Nevertheless, we recognize that many eligible households in need were not able to receive assistance because of the limited amount of funding.  We are hoping to receive additional funding and will select from this application pool if we do receive more funding.

If you previously submitted an application, the All Chicago Rent Relief site will remain open so you can check the status of your application.  The following is a list of application statuses and how you should proceed based on the application status:

Please note:  If you call All Chicago or the Rent Relief call center, we will only be able to assist you if your application is in the Paid, Approved, Funding Approved, Funding Requested or Ready for Supervisor categories.

Paid:  Your application has been paid.  Confirm with your landlord that they have received the funds.

Approved:  Your application has been approved and if funds are still available will be moved to Funding Requested status. This does not guarantee funding will be available or paid.

Funding Approved: Your application and funding requested has been approved and you will receive funding soon.

Funding Requested:  Your application has been approved and moved to funding approval review status. This does not guarantee funding will be available or paid.

Ready for Supervisor:  Your application is under review and may move to “Funding Requested” provided that all documentation is in order, we determine that you have not previously received payments under another rental assistance program, and we have remaining funds.[HS1] 

In Progress:  Your application has been received, and an initial review has been made, but we will likely run out of funding before we are able to completely review the case.  Applications in this pool will be eligible for review if we receive additional funding.

Unreviewed: Your application has been received and due to the volume of applications, we have not been able to review the application.  We will not be able to fund the application with our current funding, but applications in this pool will be eligible for review if we receive additional funding. 

New: Your application has been received and due to the volume of applications, we have not been able to review the application.  We will not be able to fund the application with our current funding, but applications in this pool will be eligible for review if we receive additional funding. 

Denied – No Appeal Allowed:  We have determined that your application is not eligible for assistance under this program.  No appeal is allowed.

Denied:  We have determined that your application is not eligible for assistance under this program.

You may appeal, but because funding is exhausted, your appeal would only be considered if we receive additional funding.  Keep in mind we have limited resources for assessing appeals.

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We will keep all applications on file, and we may be able to fund these in the future if we receive an additional funding allocation. 

The Rental Assistance Program is available to Chicago renters who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligibility

An “eligible household” is defined as a rental household in the City of Chicago in which at least one or more individuals meets the following criteria:

• Qualifies for unemployment or has experienced a reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or experienced a financial hardship due to COVID-19;
• Demonstrates a risk of experiencing homelessness or housing instability; and,
• Has a household income at or below 80% of the area median.