Tarrant County’s new rent assistance portal closed hours after launch due to overwhelming demand. The nonprofit says more funding may be needed.
The Center for Transforming Lives, now handling rent and utility aid for Tarrant County, saw overwhelming demand and had to shut down its online assistance portal the same day it launched. Officials say they’ll reopen it after Thanksgiving and may ask for more funding to meet the need.
NBC 5’s Tahera Rahman has the latest. In North Texas, overwhelming demand forced the new rent and utility assistance portal in Tarrant County to close just hours after launching. The Center for Transforming Lives, which now manages the program, said its online portal opened Nov. 3 and reached capacity the same day. It will remain closed until the Monday after Thanksgiving.“Even though we hadn’t advertised, people knew we were the provider and got online, came into our doors,” said Carol Klocek, CEO of the Center for Transforming Lives. “We had people here at 7:30 a.m. already with their applications.”Klocek said they received about 210 applications on the first day—some from former county clients and others new to the program.To prevent massive backlogs, Klocek said the center will likely continue accepting applications in limited batches—roughly 200 at a time—then pausing to process them.“What we don’t want to do—so important that we do not give people false hope,” she said. “Six weeks is too long. Two months is too long to respond to an eviction.” Klocek said the nonprofit prioritizes getting funds to residents, not staffing. Her team of four, she said, has already processed 134 applications—more than triple what the county’s team of 20 had handled at one time. “The county was doing 40 applications at a time,” she said. “We’re helping them to create a plan for financial stability, helping with basic needs; with diapers, with wipes, whatever.” She expects the $2 million currently allocated will run out before the end of the year and anticipates asking the county for more support.Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons, the only commissioner to vote against shutting down the county’s Human Services Department, said more could have been done to support the transition. “They applied for this grant because they care about the community,” Simmons said. “And we took advantage of that compassion by underfunding the operational side of the work.” Simmons added that while the previous department also closed its portal at times, she believes it’s not a sustainable model.Precinct 1 Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr. said the volume of applications highlights an urgent need. “The overwhelming response to the rental and utility assistance program confirms what we have known for months: the need in Tarrant County is urgent, widespread and growing,” Miles wrote in a statement. “The Center for Transforming Lives received more applications in three weeks than originally projected and has already provided more than $45,000 in assistance.” He thanked the center for its swift work and said ensuring accuracy and fairness in processing applications takes time. “What we will not do is compromise program integrity or rush a process that determines whether families receive the support they depend on,” he said.“The action we took two months ago reduced the Tarrant County operating budget by more than $1.7 million and doubled the amount going to people in need,” O’Hare said in a written statement. “It is a win for taxpayers and a win for people in need. This is good governance.”
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