Emergency Assistance to Prevent Eviction (EAPE) Program

The County EAPE Program helps CalWORKs Welfare-to-Work (WtW) families who are behind in rent and/or utility bills due to a financial crisis which could lead to an eviction and homelessness. Effective October 1, 2020, the EAPE Program provides eligible families with a once-in-a-lifetime* maximum of up to $5,000 to pay for multiple months of their past due rent and/or utilities to help them keep their housing. EAPE also pays for utility reconnection fees, if the family’s’ utilities have been disconnected when the EAPE application is submitted.
 

To be eligible for EAPE, the family must: 

• Be CalWORKs approved; 
•  Have exhausted or not be eligible to the State’s Permanent Homeless Assistance Arrearages payment;
• Be employed full-time, or employed part-time and actively participating in an approved GAIN WtW activity or Post-Time Limit (PTL) services, or unemployed and actively participating in an approved GAIN WtW activity or PTL services;
• Have a verifiable financial hardship resulting from circumstances beyond the family’s control that caused the nonpayment of rent and/or utilities;
• Provide verification of the financial hardship;
• Provide verification of the past due rent and/or utilities; and 
• Agree to pay a part of the past due rent and/or utilities.
   

Eligible families can only receive EAPE when the payment of back rent and/or utilities will prevent eviction. Families can access EAPE as needed until the once-in-a-lifetime* maximum is reached. Once the once-in-a-lifetime* maximum limit has been exhausted, there is no exception to access the EAPE Program again.
 

Note: Each EAPE request is equivalent to one EAPE Program payment, regardless of the payment amount. As such, EAPE requests cannot exceed four consecutive months. If an EAPE balance is still available, after the fourth consecutive request, the participant can request an EAPE Program payment on a future date, but not on the fifth consecutive month.