TAMPA, Fla. — A woman paying rent at a Tampa apartment said her landlord initially denied the rental assistance she was awarded.
The City of Tampa launched a new program months ago using five million tax dollars to help people pay for rising rent costs.
"In March, I found out about this program and I’m like, 'OK great!'" Ruth Levin, who rents at Bay Colony Apartments, said.
Levin said she applied for Tampa’s rental assistance program, but the funding ran out.
Levin also said she signed up for the waitlist and five months later, she got an email.
"We were so excited. We sat here and were like, 'this is great!' We really needed this. We were worried about making it," Levin said.
Levin and her partner are both in their 60s and struggle to pay for their rising rent. She said their rent went up $375 to stay at market value.
Levin said she and her partner were relieved they were accepted for the assistance until they heard back from officials with Bay Colony Apartments.
"Lisa from Bay Colony called me and said 'I have some bad news, they won’t take this,'" Levin said.
Levin then said she asked her landlord what exactly she meant by who is "they." Turns out "they" would be Wisco LLC, which owns Bay Colony Apartments.
"She said they won’t take it unless it’s a lump sum," Levin said.
The rental assistance requires a tenant and their landlord to fill out forms with a deadline. From there, the money goes directly to the landlord monthly. Therefore, a lump sum is not given to landlords.
Levin was awarded $600 a month for 10 months but said Bay Colony Apartments wouldn’t accept it.
"I got angry, I got a little 'Kareny,'" Levin said.
She also said that her landlord had a deadline to get these forms in, otherwise the money would go to someone else.
Levin said no one at her complex would give her answers. She said she was persistent and contacted the housing authority and apartment employees and even emailed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
That’s when Levin said she was given an ultimatum. She had to agree to move out in 10 months for disturbing those at Bay Colony Apartments and in return, the complex would accept the assistance for 10 months.
Levin said apartment officials told her she harassed them, but she denied those accusations. Instead, she said that she was persistent to ask them for answers and accepting the government assistance.
However, landlords are legally allowed to deny government assistance.
"Unless there’s some special law that says you can not deny assistance, landlord is always free to say no," Paul Boudreaux, law professor as Stetson University, said.
The City of Tampa confirmed out of the 355 people who qualified for the assistance program, 35 people had their landlords refuse to accept it.
"The landlord might think it’s a bit of a hassle," Boudreaux said.
Lawyers explained some landlords look at government assistance as a "headache." Some landlords may worry they won't get the money in a timely manner. For that, they may say no, according to experts.
Levin is getting the funding but will lose her lease in nine months.
"We’re stuck, we don’t know where to go from here," she said.
Levin said she and her partner are both on fixed incomes and received social security funding. She also said she now has no idea where they will move because of the rising rent prices for apartments in Tampa.
Levin said she has family that lives close to her apartments and it's also in the same area as her doctors.
10 Tampa Bay Reporter Shannon Clowe contacted Bay Colony Apartments to get clarity on Levin's situation. They have yet to respond.
A spokesman for the City of Tampa said, “We wish more landlords would join us in our efforts to keep people from being priced out of this community.”
The city said they plan to put another $5.5 million into the program to help more struggling people pay their rent.