Need Rental Assistance?

This weekend, the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council (EHOC) is putting on a two-day event to help City Residents* apply for rental assistance. 

  • When? Friday August 20th from 10am - 6pm and Saturday August 21st from 10am - 2pm

  • Where? Gym of St. Louis Community College Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63110. 

  • Why? To help renters who have fallen behind on rent due to Covid-19 obtain direct payments to pay debt to landlords

Pre-registration is required to attend. 

If you have questions about how to register or what to bring to the event, contact EHOC at 314-441-5660 or clipsey@ehoc-stl.org.

*If you are a Saint Louis County resident, check out the ongoing assistance programs through the St. Louis County Library

Although rental assistance has been a large portion of the funding released through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan, municipalities have had difficulty getting the funds to those most in need. Earlier this month, Mayor Tishaura Jones administered an executive order allowing funds to go directly to renters to then pay to their landlords, hoping to relieve some of the administrative burden that has held up the funds to this point. The event this weekend will be the first event of its kind since this change has been made, and hopes to expedite and streamline the process for getting relief to renters at-risk of eviction. 

The City of Saint Louis has extended its eviction moratorium until October 3rd, creating a deadline to get the rental assistance funds out the door and into the pockets of landlords who are owed. By allowing direct-to-renter assistance, the funding should help some of the 3,000 people who currently have evictions pending on the docket in the City of Saint Louis pay their back rent and keep up to date with payments going forward. 

We been focused on helping those most at-risk of losing their homes since the pandemic hit. Through CARES Act Funding we created ARCH by HomeScreen: At-risk Renters’ Connection to Housing. 

ARCH connects local nonprofit agencies, working with those who face eviction, with HomeScreen’s network of landlords. The landlords participating in ARCH by HomeScreen recognize the affects the pandemic - not to mention historic housing laws - has had on low to moderate income renters and disproportionately renters of color. 

ARCH by HomeScreen landlords and want to be a part of the solution by providing safe and stable housing to those who have a barrier to housing, like late payments or balances owed to a past landlord. In order to meet the needs of our community, we are actively recruiting more landlords to participate in the free program. 

Landlords who have not rented to a person with a housing barrier may be hesitant to join the program, but with ARCH by HomeScreen, all of the renters will be supported by one of our trusted nonprofit partners. In addition, ARCH still allows landlords to screen applicants coming from the ARCH platform and ultimately approve or deny the applicants once the screening is complete. Each nonprofit program is different and offers varying types of financial and other support depending on the clients they serve. We are looking for a wide variety of landlords and properties to meet the wide needs in our communities.


Please share this information with any renter in-need of assistance or any landlord looking to register for ARCH by HomeScreen. We’re all in this together!

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Ella Gross