JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — When First Coast News did a story about Florida’s rental assistance program called Our Florida, we heard a lot of comments from you.
Many of you are having problems getting the payments the state has said it would provide. You are also having trouble finding anyone at an office to provide solid answers to your questions.
"The experience with Our Florida has not been great,"Olvia Clayton of Jacksonville told us.
Our Florida is the state's federally-funded emergency rental assistance relief program, to “help people get back on their feet,” according to its website.
Clayton has 18 rental properties. Three of her tenants applied for assistance with Our Florida.
All three of them have had problems with the program.
“I have one tenant who applied,” Clayton said, and he was approved. While he received a check for the earlier part of 2022, he still has not received a check for Feb, March, and April.
“But now they're giving us the runaround and still haven't issued the check for three months,” she said.
Clayton, wanting to help, even got on the phone with Our Florida and was told, “’Somebody has to review it.’” But I said, ‘You have all the documentation. So what else is there to review?’ And they can't give me an answer. Then it's just, ‘We're backed up,’ ‘we have all these applications.’ And I don't understand that because they stopped accepting applications in May. So why are they so backed up?”
Other First Coast News viewers tell us they are getting the runaround too.
When I called Our Florida, I couldn’t get to a person.
I asked through the online portal, “Are the offices (closest offices to Jacksonville) in Daytona and Gainesville open?” The response: “I’m sorry. I don’t understand your question. Please ask another question.”
Clayton told First Coast News, “It's unfair to the tenant and the landlord because we can't just absorb these losses. And I don't want to be put in the position where I'm putting him out on the street.”
So, after her tenant got nowhere with Our Florida, Clayton created a payment system with him. He was able to secure a job and is now paying rent and portions of the back rent.
“I worked out a deal to keep a roof over his head,” Clayton said, “because he's been a good tenant of ours since 2018.”