City of Fort Myers offering housing and utility assistance

The City of Fort Myers announced on Tuesday that it has $4.6M available to provide emergency rent and utility assistance to residents impacted by COVID-19.

Applicants must reside within the City of Fort Myers boundaries before the date of the application and demonstrate a loss of income, job loss, or reduction of hours due to COVID-19.

Below is a list of requirements that must be met to qualify for assistance:

• If household income is less than 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI) for Lee County (see chart below) the applicant is presumed eligible.

• Households that fall under one or both of the following will be prioritized during processing:

  a) Household income is below 50 percent of AMI;

  b) One or more persons in the household are unemployed and have not been employed for the last 90 days prior to the application date.

• Households that are receiving housing and/or utility assistance from any other programs cannot also apply for the same months that other assistance is received.

• Households may apply for up to 12 months of assistance.

 

Income Guidelines Chart Annual household income must be within the limits noted in this chart
Number of Person in Household	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Income Level	$40,250	$46,000	$51,750	$57,500	$62,100	$66,700	$71,300	$75,900

 

“Many of our families are unaware of the help that is out there, and we would like to make this information easily accessible,” said Fort Myers City Councilman Johnny Streets. “Sometimes it’s very difficult to navigate through numerous phone numbers and complicated programs. You just don’t know who to call when you risk utilities being turned off or eviction. However, we do have the Emergency Rent and Utility Assistance Program created to assist those renters impacted by COVID-19.”

You can apply for assistance by following this link. If you live outside of the City of Fort Myers municipal boundaries, you can apply with Lee County.

For more information from the City of Fort Myers about this program, you can go to this website, and click the blue “housing” button. For more information about The Housing Authority of the City of Fort Myers and its services, follow this link.