Subject
title
Rockville Emergency Assistance Program (REAP) Work Session
end
Department
Housing and Community Development
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Mayor and Council approve the planned alterations to the Rockville Emergency Assistance Program (REAP) as presented and provide feedback on the following questions regarding whether to:
1. Set a $10,000 maximum asset level requirement for applicants
2. Set an 80% Area Median Income (AMI) maximum requirement for applicants
3. Allow childcare to be added to the eligible assistance types
Discussion
Program Overview
The Rockville Emergency Assistance Program (REAP), established in 1982, provides emergency assistance to eligible City of Rockville residents experiencing a financial crisis. By providing this assistance, REAP improves housing stability and quality of life. The most common uses of REAP are to prevent evictions and utility shut offs. When needed, staff assists clients with housing navigation and make referrals to appropriate available public and private resources to supplement the financial assistance provided by REAP, as well as other programs that will help clients to achieve long-term financial and housing stability.
To receive assistance, applicants must reside in the corporate city limits of Rockville at the time of application and for a period of at least six months prior. Applicants must demonstrate financial need due to loss of employment, ongoing financial difficulty, loss of household income, unexpected medical bills, or another financial emergency. The applicant must have a verifiable emergency not due to negligence. If deemed eligible for county programs, applicants must first apply for assistance from the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services.
Eligible expenses include:
• Rent payments (up to $2,000) when the applicant has received a current eviction notice from the court in the form of a Summons to Appear for Failure to Pay Rent, Writ/Warrant of Restitution, or have a Red and White Final Eviction Notice from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office;
• Utility payments (up to $1,500) when the applicant has received a discontinuance notice or notice of past-due payment with a shut-off date;
• Prescription payments (up to $300) for non-narcotic drugs, as well as dental or medical procedures;
• Funeral expenses (up to $1,000); and
• Other basic needs when necessary resources cannot be obtained free of charge from area agencies or non-profit organizations.
REAP has undergone significant variations in utilization rates over the past several years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic, there were a total of 40 and 51 approved REAP cases, respectively (Figure 1). This shrunk to only 11 in 2020, two in 2021, and seven in 2022. During this period, Montgomery County received a large influx of federal funding that was used for emergency assistance. Given Rockville’s requirement that eligible households must first apply for county assistance, the vast majority of households were able to receive the help they needed from the county rather than the city.
Cases began to increase again in 2023 to 17, and in 2024 there were 70. Thus far in 2025, there have already been 41 cases. At current rates, staff expect over 100 cases to be approved in 2025. This trend reflects how the county’s level of funding impacts REAP, as well as the acute financial challenges city residents currently face. Now that pandemic-era federal funding has ended, the county is able to fully pay off fewer cases - resulting in a much higher caseload for city staff.
Figure 1. Total Approved REAP Cases by Calendar Year
Program Design Changes
In response to these external changes in the city’s landscape, staff recommends the following changes.
Changes to Client Eligibility:
• Asset Level: Staff propose setting a maximum asset level for unemployed applicants of $10,000 to ensure that we are prioritizing assistance for those who most lack resources of their own to resolve their financial emergency. This would include only liquid assets, like savings accounts, not long-term assets. There is currently no asset limit.
• Income Limit: Staff propose setting a household income limit at 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (Table 1). There is currently no household income limit for REAP, whereas the county’s limit is 60% AMI. Of the REAP recipients in 2024 and 2025, the average annual household income is $30,024 and the median annual household income is $24,000. Since 2018, there have only been six clients with annual household incomes over $70,000. As such, staff does not anticipate a significant decrease in the number of REAP clients due to this change. Since case managers collect income information to verify eligibility for county funds, placing this requirement in place would simply act as a guardrail to prioritize funds for low-income households.
Table 1: Annual Household Income at 80% AMI by Household Size
|
Persons in Family |
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
$74,800 |
$85,450 |
$96,150 |
$106,800 |
$115,350 |
Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, FY 2025 Income Limits Summary, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD HUD Metro FMR Area
Changes to Assistance Amounts:
• Total Maximum Assistance: At the moment, there is no overall limit to the amount of assistance clients may receive. Maximum assistance amounts are set by type of assistance. For example, within a twelve-month period, a client may currently receive a total of $3,800 in REAP funds. Given the recommendations below to increase the maximum amount of rental assistance and add other types of assistance, staff feel a need to balance desires to allow for increased assistance limits and to serve as many clients as possible. To that end, staff propose setting an overall limit to assistance at $4,000 for a twelve-month period. Thus far in 2025, the median amount of funding needed by REAP recipients is $4,128.
• Increase Maximum Rental Assistance: The current rental assistance maximum of $2,000 does not cover the median Rockville rent of $2,101 per month. Therefore, staff propose to increase the maximum amount of rental assistance to $3,000. The median amount of rental assistance needed across cases from 2024 and 2025 is $6,029. Note that certain applicants are eligible to receive both county and city assistance and could therefore receive a combined maximum of $6,000 (currently $5,000), should they have eligible expenses of that amount.
Changes to Types of Assistance:
• Add Childcare: Given recent discussions by the Mayor and Council, staff intends to add childcare as an eligible assistance type, up to a maximum of $2,000, which would likely pay for a little over a month of childcare expenses while the parent or guardian job searches (Table 2). This assistance could only to be used for licensed providers with an open license status, according to the Maryland State Department of Education.
Table 2: Median Monthly Childcare Prices by Age of Children and Care Setting in Montgomery County
|
Age of Child |
Center-Based |
Home-Based |
|
Infant |
$1,990 |
$1,382 |
|
Toddler |
$1,613 |
$1,303 |
|
Preschool |
$1,613 |
$1,303 |
|
School-age |
$1,455 |
$1,209 |
Source: U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, 2022 data with 2024 inflation-adjusted prices
• Removing Funeral Expenses: This type of assistance has been rarely used, and when there have been requests for funeral assistance, the balance is frequently significantly more than the maximum, so the client is denied. For this reason, staff recommends removing funeral expenses as an eligible expense.
• Assistance allowed with approval: To achieve REAP’s goal of housing stability and preventing homelessness, staff have found that the following types of assistance are sometimes needed. As such, staff proposed to explicitly denote these types of assistance in the REAP policies and procedures to set requirements and expectations around them. Each of the following types of assistance would still need approval from the Housing Programs Manager to move forward with the case, but would have to adhere to certain guidelines:
o Security Deposits: Some clients have such high rental arrears that the best use of city funds may be to assist them with moving to a new rental where they can better afford rent. In these cases, applications would only be considered for clients with a welcome letter. Staff proposes a maximum assistance amount of $2,000. Given that security deposits are now legally limited to one month’s rent, staff believe that $2,000 will be enough to cover most cases.
o Moving Expenses: Clients facing housing instability or homelessness frequently need to rely on storage units to keep their belongings and may incur other moving costs as a result of being evicted. Staff recommend a maximum assistance amount of $500.
o Guarantor Fees: While rare, staff have noticed more cases of rental properties requiring applicants who are deemed riskier due to not meeting income or credit requirements to have a guarantor on their lease. Guarantor companies will typically charge a one-time payment of between four to seven percent of the annual rent. Staff recommend setting a maximum assistance amount of $1,800.
o Hotel Stays: The City of Rockville is not a part of the Montgomery County Continuum of Care for homelessness and does not provide homelessness services. However, there have been a few extreme cases where there are Rockville households who have been evicted and have a housing transition plan in place. For those cases, REAP funds to provide a short-term hotel stay can prevent temporary homelessness and entrance into the shelter system. As with all REAP cases, county assistance must always be exhausted first. Staff recommend a maximum assistance amount of $150 per night for a total maximum of $3,000.
Status of Bridge Program:
In the past, DHCD has, in parallel, operated the Rockville Bridge Rental Assistance Program (Bridge) to pay off client’s rental arrears prior to the start of eviction proceedings. Due to acute needs, the Department has been prioritizing clients facing impending homelessness or utility shut off. Bridge cases may still be approved on a case-by-case basis, typically given there are unique circumstances meaning that the client may not be able to provide the required documentation to be eligible for REAP.
Table 3: Summary of Proposed Changes to REAP
|
|
Current Policy |
Proposed Policy |
|
Client Eligibility |
|
Asset Level |
None |
$10,000 |
|
Income Threshold |
None |
80% AMI |
|
Assistance Amounts |
|
Maximum Assistance |
None |
$4,000 |
|
Maximum Rental Assistance |
$2,000 |
$3,000 |
|
Types of Assistance |
|
Childcare |
None |
$2,000 |
|
Funeral Expenses |
$1,000 |
Remove from program |
|
Security Deposits |
With Housing Programs Manager approval |
$2,000 (manager approval needed) |
|
Moving Expenses |
|
$500 (manager approval needed) |
|
Guarantor Fees |
|
$1,800 (manager approval needed) |
|
Hotel Stays |
|
$150/night, $3,000 total max. (manager approval needed) |
Connection with Federal Employees
Former federal employees who have lost their job would be eligible for REAP, given that they meet the program’s eligibility requirements, such as the residency requirement, household income limit, and asset limit, and are experiencing a verifiable emergency. These applicants would be treated in the same manner as all other applicants.
Looking Forward
On May 5, 2025, the Mayor and Council approved $145,850 for REAP in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget. The City Manager’s office intends to bring a $100,000 budget amendment before the body in June 2025. With a total budget of $245,850, REAP would be able to assist 61 households at the maximum allowed amount of $4,000 per household per twelve-month period. However, many clients are successfully assisted with less than the maximum amount of assistance, so staff projects the total number of households assisted will be greater.
Mayor and Council History
Housing is one of the Mayor and Council’s five focus areas. In June 2024, a high-level briefing was presented outlining the city's housing crisis and policy landscape. Later in 2024, there were three work sessions on the city’s housing strategies, during which providing additional assistance to renters via REAP was approved by the Mayor and Council as one of the strategies to pursue. This is the first time the Mayor and Council has discussed the Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DCHD’s) recent proposed changes to the program.
Next Steps
After receiving feedback from the Mayor and Council, staff will finalize the internal policies and procedures for the redesigned Rockville Emergency Assistance Program (REAP) and transmit it to the City Manager for final approval. Upon approval, staff will implement the program updates and communicate changes to partner organizations.