Jess, a single mom of three living in Greeley, was working her dream job as a surgical massage technician. When her commission-based work slowed, her income took a sharp drop. She faced an impossible choice - buy food or pay rent. Falling behind on her rent payment became inevitable.
Jess turned to Catholic Charities for help while seeking a new, full-time job at Vestas, the wind turbine manufacturing facility in Windsor. After a review of her finances and employment prospects, she qualified for short-term financial assistance. With funding from The Weld Trust, Catholic Charities covered her past-due rent and gave her the breathing room she needed to get back on her feet.
Situations like Jess’ are becoming increasingly common. In Weld County 32% of residents have reported being “cost burdened”, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on housing.
“A lot of times that’s what it is – working but rent is going up. Wages just aren’t keeping pace with rental prices,” Steve McLaughlin with Catholic Charites said.
Recognizing this growing challenge in the community, The Weld Trust drew up a Proactive grant to bring together several trusted agencies across Weld County that have like-minded homeless prevention services. The collaboration includes Catholic Charities, Hope at Miracle House, Almost Home and Greeley Family House.
“Proactive grants are a boots-on-the-ground approach to identify community needs and bring together the best agencies to tackle the problem,” said The Weld Trust’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Carlson. “This model allows The Weld Trust to play a more active role in solving complex community issues.”
The Weld Trust granted these agencies $1.4 million over a two-year period to share resources and dollars to effectively and efficiently serve families at risk of homelessness throughout Weld County.
“Having other partners just to help with the lift is huge,” McLaughlin said. “We couldn’t serve as many as we do. Having the extra bandwidth has been a blessing.”
Most families served by the collaborative partners are at risk of homelessness due to a short-term hurdle in expenses. Rental assistance, along with connection to case management and mentoring can ensure the families remain housed in most cases.
Through September, 268 households have been helped through this grant. These households accounted for 529 individuals including 286 children.
Keeping people housed not only reduces trauma and anxiety, especially in children, it’s cost-effective. It can cost three times more to rehouse a person than to prevent eviction, once you factor in new deposits, first and last month’s rent, and moving expenses.
“We have been able to help a lot of families,” Deb DeMille the executive director of Hope at Miracle House said. “The Weld Trust doing this Proactive grant for our agency and the families is amazing. We saved an 88-year-old woman from being evicted and she said, ‘no one cares.’ And I told her ‘We care.’”
To learn more about homeless prevention grants and all other grants awarded by The Weld Trust, visit WeldTrust.org.