Housing Assistance Requests Nearly Double in One Week

HYANNIS – In the first week since Governor Charlie Baker ordered the shutdown on non-essential business, Housing Assistance Corporation said that they have received a dramatic influx of calls and emails asking for urgent assistance.

Calls requesting financial assistance with rent were up nearly 250 percent during the past seven days compared to the previous week.

And HAC reported that calls requesting help with foreclosure prevention are up 400 percent during the month of March over the average month of requests.

“Even before the COVID-19 health crisis, our workforce faced a housing crisis – a lack of housing options that are affordable for the wages people earn on Cape Cod and the Islands,” said Alisa Magnotta, CEO of HAC.

Last week, the agency established the Workforce Housing Relief Fund to respond to an anticipated prolonged increase in local need for housing support.

HAC said that they have redeployed some of its staff to help shore up its front line intake counselors who respond to client requests via phone and email.

The agency’s intake counselors work with hundreds of people each month asking for help and those numbers are climbing due to the pandemic.

Counselors ensure that clients take advantage of every available financial relief resource that is available from their lenders, the state and federal government before applying money from the fund.

“As the agency administering many of the state and federal housing assistance programs, we know that there are many people who fall just outside the limited criteria of these government programs who still cannot afford rent or a mortgage in our region,” said Magnotta.

“The current pandemic is exacerbating this problem. Many people do not have room in their extremely tight budgets to absorb a loss of wages or increased expenses. That’s why we established the Workforce Relief Fund. It’s never been more important for people to have a safe, stable place to call home.”

HAC said that their housing counselors are following the rapidly evolving landscape of lender and government assistance programs, but many people’s housing expenses will not be fully covered, even if a person does receive unemployment benefits.

They’re stating that the gaps in coverage that clients are reporting include:

• Clients report being unable to successfully submit unemployment claims either because the benefit for their particular circumstance is not yet available or systems are overloaded.
• Many furloughed workers must now pay entirely for their family’s health insurance out-of-pocket because employer contributions to their health insurance has stopped.
• Many Cape and Islanders make their annual budgets work by combining seasonal and part-time jobs with their year-round employment. Many seasonal businesses are delaying their openings indefinitely.

HAC has modeled the Workforce Housing Relief Fund on the state RAFT (Residential Assistance for Families in Transition) program.

RAFT is only available for households that typically make 50 percent or less of the Area Median Income.

The Workforce Housing Relief Fund will cover households making between 50 percent and 100 percent AMI who are still unable to maintain stable housing without help.

Before the coronavirus crisis, HAC’s RAFT program supported up to 16 households per month at a cost of $50,000 with an average of roughly $3,200 per household.

Payments are made directly to the lender or landlord to ensure they are used as intended.

In just the last three days, HAC received 35 inquiries for assistance, 33 of which were related to COVID-19.

At this rate, HAC said that they anticipate the need to raise at least an additional $100,000 per month over the next six months to help our workforce remain safely and stably housed and recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic.

Individual donations to the Workforce Housing Relief Fund will be 100 percent pass-through to pay for client’s housing.

The donations will be added to contributions from towns and foundations to create one coordinated housing relief fund.

Clients seeking access to services are asked to either call 508-771-5400 or email: [email protected] for assistance.

To donate to the Workforce Housing Relief Fund go to haconcapecod.org or contact Anne Van Vleck, Chief Development Officer, [email protected].