SMITH COUNTY, Texas — Since March, PATH has helped more than 1,000 renters catch up on their payments using $7-million allotted from Smith County. They've consistently had around 250 people on their waiting list.
However the money is running out, they're on pace to run out of funding by mid-December.
"With this new wave of COVID that has come through, I think that we're going to exceed our ability to help with the current funding that we have," PATH Executive Director Andrea Wilson said.
The money PATH gives out is for those specifically affected by COVID-19 and they've used more than $4-million. But once it's gone, they expect the need for the money to still be here.
Wilson said there are many different ways people may qualify.
"They have COVID right now and are out of work or someone in their household does and they're forced to being quarantined, or their child is home from school, and so they don't have care for their child so they have to stay home from work," Wilson said.
And the program doesn't just help tenants but landlords as well.
Peter Milne owns a few small properties in Smith County.
Two of his tenants couldn't pay their rent for months and says without path he would be out thousands of dollars.
"For a landlord, it would have, you know, it would have been super tough, because I'm sitting there with no income coming from either one of those properties for over a year," he said.
Wilson said they're already working with the county to see if more funding can be secured.
If you want to find out if you can qualify for rent assistance through PATH click here.