Cathedral City resident Teresa Perez felt her world crumbling around her at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He lost his network liaison task in a local school district (which he didn’t need to name) once schools closed in March 2020. The pandemic has also caused a tragedy in the life of the 47-year-old woman, with the death of her parents. , as well as the end of a romantic relationship. He added that he needed to look for intellectual aptitude to deal with anxiety.
Through all the hardships of her life, she tried to maintain her monthly salary of $1,800 and do everything she could to support her 3 teenage children. However, their payments began to fall.
“I left alone with my children, without any savings. Everything is gone,” he said. And then along came United Lift. “
The COVID-19 pandemic has put pressure on many other people in Riverside County, but paying rent was already a factor for many citizens before the virus. Due to dubious times, Riverside County, in collaboration with the nonprofit Inland SoCal United Way and Lift to Rise, has introduced an emergency rental assistance program called United Lift Rental Assistance.
Funding for United Lift came from Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act dollars and the emergency rental assistance investment, which is part of the broader investment program of the American Rescue Plan Act. Under CARES, approved applicants earned one-time bills of up to $3,500, or the amount of their notable lease balance if the balance is less than $2,500. ERA’s state and federal budget also allowed United Lift to provide several months of rent/utility assistance for lost or long-term bills.
The program targeted hiring and application assistance between June 2020 and November 2022 and distributed more than $300 million countywide to more than 35,000 households or 120,000 residents, according to a new report released Wednesday.
For Perez, that meant five months of rental assistance and with his electric and fuel expenses in 2021.
“If it wasn’t for United Lift, I would be homeless right now,” he said.
Researchers from USC’s Price School of Public Policy with United Lift compared the program, which included surveys and interviews with landlords and renters throughout the county, and provided advice for other rental assistance programs. There were 2452 tenants and 338 landlords surveyed.
The full report is available at lifttorise. org/app/uploads/2023/03/USCxUnitedLift_FullReport. pdf
The program has also attracted the attention of the state, housing and equity advocates, and even the White House. A virtual panel to discuss the findings was held Wednesday with Gene Sperling, senior adviser to President Joe Biden, director of the California Department of Housing. and Community Development, Gustavo Velasquez, Riverside County housing officials and Lift to Rise President and CEO Heather Vaikona. Lift to Rise is a Coachella Valley nonprofit whose goal is to sell housing policy and development. It operated United Lift in eastern Riverside County.
“We all knew we were doing something really special during the pandemic,” Vaikona said. “We identified early on that this work was incredibly complicated and complex. and local resources, following the very complex rules of the Treasury, running 18 hours a day when there were no vaccines and we did not know what was happening. But we were all driven by the same feeling that we knew we were taking the lives of our neighbors.
Ian Gabriel, director of data, policy and planning for Lift to Rise, said others can apply for the program online, in person, by phone or at contextual events. Applicants were then assigned a case manager, who oversaw the prestige of their request for further documentation and communicated with homeowners or application companies.
To be eligible for assistance, Riverside County renters had to have a source of income equal to or less than 80% of the county area’s median income source and have a documented loss of income source due to COVID-19. Priority given to families with income sources below 50% of the region’s median income source and those in which one or more adults had not worked in the 90 days prior to their application. Gabriel said the program’s approval rate is around 60 percent.
According to the USC report, single parents were disproportionately likely to seek help from the county, accounting for 59 percent of applicants, while single parents accounted for 44 percent. Almost a portion of applicants were between the ages of 25 and 44, and an overwhelming majority of women (nearly 63%) implemented the program. The racial and ethnic distribution of applicants was 32% Hispanic, 22% white, 19% black and 3% Asian.
Nearly 47 percent of applicants said they had “extremely low incomes,” earning less than 30 percent of the region’s median income. About 17% and 15% reported being hired full-time or part-time, respectively. Gabriel said the maximum is not unusual jobs were in restaurants, hotels, casinos, physical care and agriculture.
Paying rent was the top sensible monetary priority for most respondents, even compared to other bills. Nearly 90% of respondents said they couldn’t afford their rent when they implemented the United Lift program, and 20% reported rent increases. Black respondents reported higher rates of eviction and hiring increases than other racial groups.
Vaikona said she and her team were “not surprised by everything we learned” from applicants or the survey. Even before 2020, he said two-thirds of citizens in Riverside County and the Coachella Valley were struggling to pay their rent. Once the pandemic hit, more people were affected by lost tasks and reduced income, further increasing the burden on housing.
He added that many single-parent families are black or brown single mothers.
“When you think about who’s building this low-wage hotel economy, that’s not what I think other people think,” Vaikona said. “These are women who paint incredibly hard with young people who paint two or three jobs. “
Other data in the report shows that those who obtained assistance fared higher. In two waves of surveys (December 2021 to April 2022 and July 2022), those who did not get assistance had higher rates of homelessness, doubling (cohabitation with some other circle of relatives), residential instability (having moved), and having been evicted on the notice. Respondents used a variety of methods to cover rent, such as asking for help from the circle of family and friends, their savings, paying rent by credit card, or taking out a loan.
Interviewers who won housing assistance were more likely to rate their fitness as very smart or simply correct and reported better IQ outcomes than those who did not receive cash assistance.
Among the owners’ findings, the survey showed that they were more likely to be male (53%), Caucasian (forty-five%) and older than forty-five. Approximately 75% manage or own single-family homes or townhomes.
The problems landlords face have increased particularly during the pandemic, with tenants not paying rent (80% for small landlords and 79% for other landlords). Others included filling vacancies, paying operating expenses or mortgages, and disruptions with tenants, such as behavioral disorders or lease violations.
Among the most challenging facets of the program, Vaikona said, navigating the ever-changing rules of federal or state investment sources, such as how many months of hiring can be covered or how to get applicants financially impacted by the pandemic. But United Lift has remained “adaptable and flexible,” he said, so he believes the state, the White House and other agencies “have strengthened our agenda. “
Commenting on the program, Sperling said, “The United Lift partnership is one of the most cutting-edge and successful national models for preventing evictions and helping suffering tenants and their families. The Biden administration implemented the first national eviction prevention strategy, helping 8 million suffering renters and their families. I thank USC Price School for their evaluation of this cutting-edge partnership that may be one of the national models in the future.
Before the pandemic, Frank Elmore, 77, of Desert Hot Springs, did netpainting paintings that he enjoyed and felt important.
She worked under contract with the Palm Springs Unified School District’s Family Engagement Center, where she had an after-school program and worked with black youth. He didn’t make much money, he said, but it kept him busy, allowed him to help the children. learning skills, and helped him pay rent and other bills.
But when schools switched to distance learning in 2020, Elmore’s curriculum was put on hold.
“It reduced the small source of income I was receiving, but it was a pretty significant loss to my monetary obligations,” said Elmore, who also receives a Social Security source of income.
During a project for a school in Desert Hot Springs, she heard about the United Lift program. He followed the mandatory steps to get an appointment and submitted a request, but it took a while to get a response.
At the same time, “I’m a little scared,” he said, noting that he couldn’t pay his $616 rent for a few months. Later, he realized at the workplace of his apartment complex that it “seemed so threatening, so fast and so intimidating” that he feared being evicted.
He endured that anxiety for about two months before United Lift approved, the Desert Hot Springs resident said. He earned about $3,700, which covered late rent bills from October to December 2021 and long-term bills through March 2022.
While Elmore still suffers financially, he said he’s more satisfied with his rent payment, which recently climbed to $665. He added that he “is becoming very adept at manipulating funds” to make ends meet with groceries and other accounts.
He also hopes to work more with the district and is lately seeking a contract.
Through the housing assistance program, Perez said he was able to catch up on the money he owed and once he started running in July 2022, he may start paying the other people who lent him funds. He also helped gather friends, family, neighbors and parents in the school district to United Lift if they needed help.
While she feels “a little relieved” on those days, it’s still hard to make ends meet given inflation and high hiring costs. Perez said he earns $2,100 per month at his job, while his salary is $1,800. To earn a little extra money, babysit in the evenings and lend a hand at a friend’s restaurant on weekends. “There’s no way to save money,” the Cathedral City resident added.
Through his paintings in the school district, Perez also sees the ongoing economic effects many families face. Some are homeless and desperate to connect them to netpainting resources that are in a tense position. Other parents “barely arrive” and struggle to provide food and other essentials for their families. Children, therefore, “are not mentally in a position to be informed of anything. “
“I pray and wish they can bring back the (United Lift) program,” he said.
While United Lift has noted many positives, Lift to Rise leaders recognize that innovations need to be realized and can be implemented in other systems in the future.
Gabriel said the rules attached to the investment resources “limited access to the program to some of the hardest-to-reach populations in our region. “Lift to Rise and United Way were able to “advocate with state and federal governments,” he continued. , “to replace regulations to allow for greater acceptance by network members and expand access to the program to as many others as possible. “
There was also a giant population of renters who didn’t apply for the program, but the nonprofits knew there was a need among them. As a result, they provided them with facilities through pop-up networking events and helped complete the programs. for those who did not have access to the web or struggled to do it themselves.
The USC report also identifies geographic spaces that demand the most offline resources and expansion is successful in fast spaces.
Reflecting on United Lift, Vaikona said she and others “have learned how strong and resilient other people in our networks are to face such difficult cases on a daily basis. “But most importantly, they saw what was imaginable “when you decide to work. “in combination towards a non-unusual goal. “
“Ten, 20, 30 years from now, we’ll look back and say, ‘What did we do at that time when everything was falling apart?’We chose to come together and find, despite the obstacles, how to build and scale a program that ultimately exceeded all expectations,” Vaikona said.
Ema Sasic covers and fitness in the Coachella Valley. Contact her on ema. sasic@desertsun. com or Twitter @ema_sasic.