SAN FRANCISCO—Camden Property Trust's concern for the financial hardship the pandemic has imposed on many of its residents initially led Camden to establish a $5 million Resident Relief Fund. This fund was intended to help affected residents by providing financial assistance for living expenses such as food, utilities, medical expenses, insurance, childcare or transportation.

Grants were offered to Camden residents in good standing and not currently on notice to vacate. To apply, residents were required to complete an application and provide reasonable proof of loss of job/income. Financial assistance was initially provided up to a maximum of $2,000 per apartment.

As previously reported, online applications for Camden's Resident Relief Fund opened on April 6 and within 20 minutes, Camden had received more than 2,500 applications for assistance checks. By mid-April, Camden approved and delivered funds to 2,367 Camden residents with a total dollar value of $4,540,000.

This left Camden with $460,000 remaining in its initial $5 million fund. The balance was due to some residents not requesting the maximum grant available and the denial of some applications which did not meet the criteria.

To fulfill its commitment and distribute the full $5 million, Camden reopened the website for 30 minutes to allow additional residents to submit applications. All residents who submitted qualified applications demonstrating loss of income due to COVID-19 were to split the remaining $460,000.

Shortly thereafter, Camden received, reviewed and approved an additional 5,819 applications, which would have resulted in a grant of $79 per person. However, due to the unprecedented financial need demonstrated by so many residents, Camden increased its initial commitment of $5 million to $10.4 million. This will allow all 5,819 approved applications to receive grants equaling $1,000 each and provide financial support to a total of 8,186 Camden residents.

"As a firm, we've been through downturns and crises many times before, so we had a road map for navigating this COVID-19 pandemic, but many of our residents did not," Ric Campo, Camden Property Trust chairman of the board and CEO, tells GlobeSt.com. "We're very proud to be in a position to support Camden residents who lost their jobs or suffered substantial income reductions as a result of the pandemic and, because demand was so high for the initial $5 million resident relief fund, we expanded it to $10.4 million, directly providing assistance to 8,100-plus Camden residents."