Even as Impact NW ramps up rent relief and other assistance to keep people housed, the debt for past-due rent continues to accumulate
Prior to the pandemic, Deedra Martin was on a tight schedule. After she dropped off her 7-year-old daughter, Ellie, at Marysville Elementary School in Southeast Portland, Martin would rush to arrive on time for her shift as a manager at JOANN Fabrics. At 2 p.m., she raced back to pick up her daughter at the end of the school day.
“I called it my ‘invisible job’,” Martin remembered, describing her manager position. “As long as I could absorb it into (my day), we could reap the benefits that we then needed.”
When Portland Public Schools closed in March, Martin became her daughter’s full-time child care provider and teacher. “I don’t have the option to work,” she said. “My job not only can’t be absorbed, but now it’s really lacking.”
Martin looked for assistance at the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods Community School program at Marysville. The SUN program is administered by Impact NW, a nonprofit organization working to prevent homelessness in Oregon. Through Impact NW, Martin received weekly food boxes over the summer.
In January, Impact NW launched the Homelessness Prevention Fund. The fund aimed to raise $1 million in donations to provide increased support to people on the verge of homelessness. Though the fund was launched before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in mid-March, most of the money has been used for COVID relief.
“It was some fortuitous timing on our part,” said Andy Nelson, the executive director of Impact NW. According to Nelson, the Homelessness Prevention Fund has helped over 20,000 people with a variety of services, including rent and utility assistance, food and essential supplies deliveries, and programming for families and seniors.
Impact NW acknowledges the disproportionate toll the pandemic has had on families from marginalized backgrounds. As a Washington Post-Ipsos poll found earlier this year, Black and Hispanic Americans are significantly more likely to be laid off or furloughed due to the pandemic. To address this disparity, half the people receiving support from the fund identify as BIPOC and the nonprofit ensures that its staff comes from diverse backgrounds.
And it’s well known how the pandemic has exacerbated housing instability.
“People have lost income, and that’s been huge,” said Nelson, adding that Impact NW has provided four times more rent assistance in 2020 than in an average year. He said the Oregon eviction moratorium, which was recently extended to July 2021, has been helpful. However, “the debt is accumulating.”
“We appreciate the state and federal relief, even then, it will fall short,” Nelson said. “It’s on nonprofits like Impact (NW) to rally the communities for our neighbors.”
Donations from the Fund assist the SUN program as well. Audrey Rozell has worked as the SUN site manager at Marysville Elementary School for the past six years. Before the pandemic, she ran the after-school program, checking in with students, organizing meals, coordinating basketball and science classes and communicating with parents. “Now, all my job is pretty much social service work,” Rozell said. She visits families to deliver food, school supplies and additional support. With COVID-19, Rozell has observed increased economic hardship. “There’s definitely been reduced hours, there’s been jobs cut, it’s been incredibly challenging to be teaching, or helping, their students learn at home, especially for those of them who are working at home,” she said.
Like Nelson, Rozell appreciates the relief offered by the public sector but sees gaps in the system. In order to receive stimulus checks through the federal CARES act, “you have to be a citizen or you have to have a certain income. It’s a lot to ask parents right now that are feeling depressed already,” she said. Rozell noted that navigating government bureaucracy is more difficult for families who speak English as a second language. “Jumping through all of those hoops can be really challenging,” she said.
As a result, most families lean on community organizations, like Impact NW and SUN Community Schools, for guidance and resources. Deedra Martin, the parent from Marysville, noted that finding support within the community, instead of outside sources, is easier and less shameful. “When it’s in the school and it’s somewhere you’re bringing the kids anyway. … It’s so much more like asking a neighbor if they have a cup of flour, as opposed to feeling embarrassed because you don’t have it,” she said.
The Portland community has been showing up to provide support. At the time of writing, the Homelessness Prevention fund has raised 98% of the $1 million goal. “As dark as this year has been, something amazing has been happening,” said Nelson, “the generosity of this community is really shining through.” He noted that fundraising is easier during the pandemic, as community members are more aware of how their neighbors are struggling.
While neighbor-to-neighbor assistance is crucial to keep people fed and housed, it provides only a short-term solution to long-standing problems in local and federal policies. Nelson highlighted long-term rent assistance, lower prices in the housing market, and increased funding for nonprofits as steps the government could take to combat houselessness. Rozell noted that she’d like to see forgiveness for rent and utility bills during the pandemic.
For many families, resources and support can’t come fast enough. As bills pile up, school remains online, and the pandemic seems interminable, parents and other struggling individuals are entering what Rozell calls “survival mode.” She expressed her concern that the economic strain has taken a serious mental health toll on the families she works with.
Deedra Martin confessed as to how she copes with the stress. “I get in my car and I drive around the block with the music really loud. I haven’t had to do that in my adult life, but I do now!” she said with a laugh.
Although she’s able to crack jokes, Martin worries constantly about the future of her family. “If we take one hit, we’d be looking at our camping gear and living out of cars,” she said, sighing. “It’s in the distance, always.”
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