The funds are going fast. The applications are coming in faster.

In an effort to address the housing crisis, Broward County announced a program offering an average of $8,300 in aid to renters who couldn’t afford their rent increases. The county has since seen a huge demand for assistance.

Starting July 17, Broward will “temporarily” close its Emergency Rental Assistance Program “to provide time to review and process previously submitted applications,” the county said in a news release Tuesday.

The money hasn’t dried up yet, but it may soon. The county has already allocated $7.8 million, about a third of its original $22 million, in the weeks since the program opened on May 16.

Renters can apply online at , and direct questions to 954-831-3727.

The county said the portal — the website where renters apply — could reopen on Aug. 18, but that’s only if there’s money left to give.

It’s “quite possible” that the county will run out of its remaining $14.2 million before the reopening date, said Natalie Beasley, the director of the county’s Family Success Division and overseer of the program.

In the month since the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that the program had begun, the county has been flooded with applications, from fewer than 30 a day to over 100 a day. By the end of June, the county had around 4,000 applications to review. Now, that number has leapt to 6,000.

Beasley encouraged all tenants to complete their applications before next week’s cutoff rather than wait until August. The county will review everyone who applies before the July 17 deadline in its current round of applicants. The wait time between submitting an application and receiving aid is about four weeks.

During the first round of aid in 2021, the program only assisted tenants below 80% of the area median income who had faced financial hardship due to the pandemic.

In May, the program expanded to include all tenants below that income who receive notice of a rent increase that they can’t afford. The money will cover three months of future rent in full. Single-person households must make no more than $50,800, and four-person households must make no more than $72,550 to qualify.

The county prioritizes applications of tenants in immediate danger of eviction, which they receive notice of through their call center.

“We have the staff stop what they’re working on,” Beasley said. “So that we can help them as quickly as possible.”

At the beginning of the program, the call center received around five eviction calls a day. Now, they get between 20 and 30.

Beasley thinks that South Florida’s skyrocketing real estate prices are driving landlords to evict tenants who can’t afford higher rents long term.

The county is receiving calls from tenants whose landlords refuse to accept the program’s money.

When that happens, Beasley said, there’s little the county can do besides talk to the landlord on the tenant’s behalf, or refer them to legal aid if their landlord has violated regulations.

Landlords can also evict tenants with pending program applications.

Though tenants no longer need their landlordsto also submit an application to apply, Beasley encouraged them to have their landlords send in supplementary applications anyway, which will also help the county review those applications faster.

Even when tenants do receive their program money, however, the relief will only last three months. The money is meant to prevent homelessness, not support tenants long-term.

“We know ultimately that’s what this program was set up and designed to do,” Beasley said. “To at least give people some time.”