The City of Irvine is introducing a rental assistance program that will reimburse landlords for up to 80 percent of past due rent to compensate for missed payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The federally-funded program, called the Irvine Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), differs from Orange County’s $66 million rental assistance program, which began Feb. 1. Irvine received direct allocations of $16.8…