The Texas Rent Relief Program is closing its portal for applications after being swarmed with requests just 24 hours into its launch.

The Texas Rent Relief Program has $98 million available to help people with rent and utility bills, and people will soon be able to apply for those funds.

It’s unclear whether landlords face any penalties from state agencies for improperly evicting tenants while receiving rent relief dollars intended to help those tenants stay housed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Twenty-five states, including California and New York, preceded Texas in getting federally backed programs up and running to help homeowners suffering financial hardship because of COVID-19.

Renters are seeing their housing costs jump as population increases, strict zoning regulations and rising home sales push up rent prices.

Housing advocates worry some Texans won’t get the help they need as the state enters the cold winter months.

In the first phase of funding from the federal government for emergency rental assistance, Texas received about $2 billion. Now the state has to get those funds in the hands of Texans.

The extension comes as the federal moratorium on evictions is set to expire on July 31.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs expects that 80,000 households could benefit from a new rental assistance program. State officials plan to roll out a $1.3 billion rental assistance program for Texans struggling to keep up with housing payments during a shaky economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, around 80,000 households will be able to receive assistance. The program comes after renters have spent months depending on local funds and nonprofit organizations for rental assistance. We are finally getting a rental assistance program to the scale and the magnitude of the crisis,” said Eli Barrish, policy analyst at the housing advocacy organization Texas Housers.

That remaining planned prohibition has some homeless organizations saying the proposed rule will still make it hard to get homeless people into "supportive housing" developments. Supportive housing projects are funded through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, which give developers tax benefits in exchange for building homes that are leased at below-market rates. These projects are only one kind of housing created by the housing program, but advocates said they are key to fighting homelessness. The first version of the rule, advocates said, forced new developments to automatically deny applicants. Samuels said that he valued these changes but would have preferred no state-mandated requirement for applicants to supportive housing at all.

Advocates for homeless Texans worry a new state rule barring people with certain criminal records from some tax-supported housing will cut homeless people off from a path to permanent housing. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs is proposing that people with certain criminal convictions be temporarily or permanently blocked from living in tax-supported “supportive housing” developments. Supportive housing is only one kind of the housing created by the housing program, but advocates said it is key to fighting homelessness. Advocates say there is no data that shows that supportive housing projects increase crime in neighborhoods. Some of these homes are built for people experiencing chronic homelessness who, without supportive services, won't be able to get back on their feet.