That's tight.

WALKER: As Jay Maria Gordon sits on the porch of her West Detroit home helping one of her four children dress, she is also worrying.

Because I'm in the process of getting evicted.

My landlord has told me if I haven't paid up to three grand by September 10 that they was gonna go on with the eviction.

So I'm in that process.

WALKER: She says her housing problems are due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I was working, but I have young kids, so they have to have daycare, and (kid coughing) the person that watches my kids, caught COVID, so I could no longer work, it forced me out of my job.

WALKER: She says she's been looking for a new job and a new childcare provider.

Meanwhile, rent has been piling up and now she says she owes so much, it feels impossible to pay it.

The 36th District Court sent me a letter saying that if I didn't pay the 3,000, by September 10, that they was gonna go on with the eviction.

So that's what I was tryna' do, but it's already, August 25th.

And I don't know if I'm gonna be able to come up with 3 grand by then.

WALKER: She's tried to get help.

I filled out the COVID relief assistance, rental assistance, no one got back to me.

I did that May 8th, 2021.

No one's contacted me, nothing.

So as of now, I don't know, right now, what to do, or what I'm going to do.

WALKER: The program, Jay Maria applied for is CERA.

It is designed to help people like her who are struggling to pay rent due to the pandemic.

We spoke with Kelly Rose at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to find out more about the program and how people can take advantage of it.

So the COVID Emergency Rental Assistance Program which we call CERA is designed to help renters and landlords.

So renters can get up to 15 months of rental assistance and they can also get help with their utilities.

So really the program is designed to help the renter preserve their housing stability and to also help the landlord to recoup those rental payments that the tenant was not able to make during the pandemic.

WALKER: Although the program can help tremendously, there are also a tremendous number of people applying for it at the same time.

So in Detroit, because they are having such a high application volume, it is taking generally about eight weeks to get applications processed.

In some cases it's faster.

In some cases it's slower, because they are working to prioritize eviction cases.

So if the landlord has already filed for eviction, and that case needs to be processed faster then they're, you know, just sort of moving into the front of the line to try to make sure that cases are processed quickly enough to avoid that eviction.

So it really does vary a little bit, but it is something that we're working with the Detroit providers, United Community Housing Coalition, as well as Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, to really speed up that process.

WALKER: But it's taken much longer for Jay Maria's claim to get processed; she filed back in May.

Michael Centi, a director at Wayne Metro says they aren't handling Jay Maria's case, but he was able to find out some information.

He says the case is under review by the United Community Housing Coalition.

He also shed a light on why some cases take longer than others.

Wayne County in general has received about 40% of the state's applications.

And so, any longer times are really a result of the, you know, tremendous demand that we're seeing in our region.

In July, Wayne Metro distributed about $10 million in rental assistance for about 1,500 households.

In August, we doubled that, you know, so we're really moving at a really fast pace right now.

We're assisting, we're paying out or distributing rental assistance for over 7,000, I'm sorry, 700 households per week at this point.

So, I just wanna kind of reiterate that this is really a freight train, kind of moving at full speed at this point, you know, we have about a hundred million dollars of rental assistance came to Wayne Metro on March 15th.

And you know, we've distributed over half of it at this point.

And we have, we're on pace to really distribute the rest of that by the end of the year.

WALKER: At the state level, Kelly Rose says they've been working hard to put a dent in the number of cases coming in.

We've received over 62,000 applications statewide for the program.

In a Detroit alone, we've seen over 16,000 applications.

WALKER: While also trying to get more people to apply.

Release the funds.

CROWD: Release the funds.

Release the funds.

CROWD: Release the funds.

Everyone in charge needs to be ashamed of themselves.

WALKER: But waiting for rental assistance has frustrated and outraged some people.

We caught up with a group called Moratorium NOW!

they were speaking out, along with other organizations to demand that CERA funds be released more quickly to help people stay in their homes.

Nobody should be evicted, or even thought about being evicted, until every dime is released.

WALKER: Rose points out, there are other factors that slow up the process.

So we're really working to try to reach people, but we also have about 15,000 applications statewide, where the landlord has applied, but the tenant has not yet applied.

So we're really working with our Service Agencies as well, to reach out to those tenants, to try to understand why they haven't applied and to be able to provide them assistance in applying.

WALKER: You can apply for CERA funds using your phone, tablet, or computer, you can also mail your application in.

We've got over a billion dollars of rental assistance to deploy in Michigan.

We think we'll have these programs available for the next two or three years.

So we're really hoping to be able to really effectively serve people at the local level.

And if you're wondering if you might qualify for the program.

Say for the Detroit market, a single person up to $44,000 of income, will qualify.

In a family of four, up to $62,800, will qualify for the programs.

This program is here for you.

We want to serve you and to come in to apply.

Jay Maria says she wants to believe that, because right now this is the only hope she has for her and her children.

Mommy have a kiss?

Love you.

I have four kids that I have to take care of, that needs a roof over their head.

I can't pay the back rent right now, and I need assistance.