Hundreds of thousands of Arizonans are still out of work and many are struggling to pay rent. Glendale’s City Council has a new plan to keep tenants housed. 

The city of Glendale will pay up to six months of rent, up to $2,000 per month, for tenants financially impacted by COVID-19. The application window will be just two weeks long, starting Nov. 1, and the aid will be distributed through a lottery system.

Matthew Hess, Glendale's revitalization administrator, said the city recognized that housing aid applications can be prohibitively complicated for renters, so instead, the city is asking landlords to apply on tenants’ behalf.

“Flipping it around the other way where we have the landlords providing all this information really saves a lot of time and it streamlines the process significantly,” Hess said. 

Glendale’s Property Owner Preservation Program will be paid for by a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The budget for the program is $782,000. Preference will be given to landlords who manage four units or fewer. 

Hess said the goal is to distribute aid before the CDC's eviction moratorium expires at the end of the year.

Other rental assistance programs throughout Arizona are listed on the Department of Housing website.