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2. Letter of Legislative Support
Op-Ed Article for Greensboro Housing Coalition, October 2021
In March of last year, our worlds became smaller. “Home” took on a whole new meaning. We clung to it, were confined to it, and from its windows we watched the COVID-19 virus wreak havoc on the outside world.
The financial blows of the pandemic created mass instability. For families already living paycheck to paycheck, having a place to call home became even more tenuous. Hours were cut, jobs were lost, and childcare was nonexistent – not to mention the risk of contracting the often deadly virus.
It took incredible advocacy for the powers that be to enact the eviction moratorium that prevented immediate mass homelessness. Families waited anxiously each time the moratorium’s end date approached, and they felt relief each time it was extended at the last minute. Until it wasn’t.
Throughout this crisis, Greensboro Housing Coalition (GHC) has been an immediate first responder – having been firmly planted on the frontlines of local affordable housing for over 30 years. The City of Greensboro released over $700,000 in federal CARES Act funding to GHC for disbursement to local families behind on rent. Almost overnight, GHC’s call volume spiked by ten times. Applications for assistance flooded the small office. The need was – and still remains – overwhelming. In a period of months, GHC received 3,500 CARES Act assistance applications.
Those funds were not enough to stop the bleeding. After national advocacy from individuals and organizations emphasizing the need for additional and more flexible financial assistance, the US Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) was initiated. In March 2021, GHC was recruited once more by the City of Greensboro and worked with local housing partners at the Salvation Army, Housing Consultants Group, and Greensboro Urban Ministry to continue distributing essential funds, this time totaling over $16,000,000.
Nationally, only about 16.5% of ERAP funds have yet reached the households waiting so desperately for this relief, due to the overwhelm of applications and limited infrastructure. Greensboro has proven to be well ahead of the curve. GHC alone has received and disbursed over $3,000,000 of ERAP funding to almost 1,000 households in Greensboro. Even so, there are still over 700 pending applications that have been submitted and more come in each day.
The numbers are one thing, but we have to remember what they represent. Each application is a household on the verge of homelessness. Each household is a family. These are our friends and neighbors; this is our community.
Stable housing is essential to a family’s wellbeing. Families are able to stay together. Children are able to stay in school. Households are able to stay healthier and keep their neighborhood support systems intact. With stable housing, there is not the overwhelming anxiety of wondering where to safely rest at night.
The eviction moratorium officially ended on August 26, 2021. Courts reopened, and households that were behind on rent began to be evicted from their homes. Through advocacy to disrupt the eviction process, GHC secured the ability to receive eviction dockets in advance and was newly granted access to be in courtrooms with clients to assist them in real-time. GHC is now able to provide proof of application or upcoming assistance in the courtroom and has worked with the Clerk of Court’s office to allow certified checks from our agency to be accepted on behalf of clients who have been approved for assistance.
In Greensboro, local agencies have done incredible work with the funding provided, preventing homelessness for thousands of families in our community. Yet the need continues, making it imperative that additional funding be allocated to address this overwhelming housing crisis.
Letter of Support to the NC House of Representatives from the Greensboro Housing Coalition Board of Directors, June 2020
North Carolina State Legislative Building
Attn: Rep. John Szoka
16 West Jones Street, Rm. 2207
Raleigh, NC 27601-1096
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter is submitted on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, Inc. (GHC) to express the Board’s support for NC House Bill 1200: Foreclosure Prevention Grants/Rental & Utility Assistance, filed by Representative John Szoka. In addition to its support, the Board would like to provide feedback on elements of the proposed bill that may hinder our ability to apply the bill’s provision to those most in need of assistance.
GHC is a nonprofit, HUD-certified housing agency serving Guilford County and beyond. For more than 30 years, we have been advocating for healthy, safe, affordable homes for low- to moderate-income individuals and families, many of whom face significant roadblocks to quality housing. Our agency provides direct service to clients facing housing insecurity, while also driving initiatives for systemic change in order to create a more equitable housing landscape for the entire community.
As a contracted partner of the City of Greensboro and a trusted community resource, GHC provides support to thousands of households each year. GHC’s housing counselors serve as experienced guides to provide individualized support to clients. In doing so, these housing counselors hear the intimate and oftentimes heartbreaking stories that so often accompany housing insecurity. Families losing their homes, whether owned or rented, face a significant level of trauma and disruption that has been shown to push households deeper into poverty and risk of homelessness; they lose possessions too costly to move; kids’ schooling is interrupted, lowering academic achievement; and physical and mental health is stressed. The funds provided through HB1200 will change the life course of those families, giving them the opportunity to maintain their place of safety and stability— their home.
While supportive of this bill, the Board identified the following elements that, if addressed, would greatly aid tenants and mortgage holders who are facing dire obstacles to retaining their residences in this current environment:
● Regarding the home property owner side of the bill, unpaid mortgage payments are not the only bill payments that may threaten a household’s homeownership. Three other payments that could also result in loss of a property are: (1) unpaid property insurance (which could be, but is not necessarily, covered in a mortgage loan) (2) housing in need of essential, but cost-prohibitive, repairs that may disqualify a homeowner from receiving mortgage assistance, and (3) past-due utility payments (an up-to-date mortgage may do little good if utilities are cut off due to nonpayment). It is of note that the bill’s authors recognized the need to aid renters in making utility payments, but did not consider the same need for homeowners. The Board would also like to see a provision within the bill that would allow for the renegotiation of future mortgage payments in order to provide a long-term solution to help low-income homeowners maintain homeownership after utilizing the financial assistance outlined in this bill.
● Regarding renters, the Board is concerned that there are no provisions in the bill that would prevent landlords that receive the payment of back-owed rent, as made possible by this bill, from evicting the tenant for reasons other than nonpayment. We would prefer a provision in the bill that requires those landlords to, at the very least, attempt to mediate disputes with the tenant prior to filing an eviction notice. In addition, the bill as it stands does not explicitly state that renter households can seek both rental and utility assistance, which should be clarified.
● Regarding both homeowners and renters, the Board would prefer more flexibility in the requirement that individuals must have filed for unemployment and/or unemployment insurance to qualify for assistance. Significant reductions in wages can have the same housing impacts as total job loss.
● Regarding both homeowners and renters, the Board would also prefer more flexibility in the requirement that individuals provide their three (3) most recent bank statements as some individuals may not have an active bank account.
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the risks associated with housing insecurity become even more urgent. It is with consideration for this reality that the GHC Board of Directors supports the passage of HB1200, while asking representatives to consider the recommendations outlined herein as negotiations occur for the language of the final bill. We stand ready to discuss these recommendations with you and thank you for your support of this urgent housing assistance program.
Sincerely,
[Board Chair Signature]
[Executive Director Signature]
Grant Application to the Duke Energy Foundation
*Program Title | Equity Through Community-Centered Change |
*How has your organization engaged in the fight for social justice and racial equity for Black Americans before 2020? | GHC is a leading advocacy nonprofit in Guilford County. Our focus is affordable housing, but our work expands beyond individual households and into the wider community. Our work addresses the intersections of social and economic justice issues, social drivers of health, and identifying root causes of issues to enact lasting change. GHC has a strong track record of working in partnership with local government entities, area nonprofits, and grassroots organizing efforts wherein we work alongside residents in predominately African American communities on strategies that focus on systemic issues related to policy, systems, and environmental change. GHC also serves as a liaison between stakeholders, such as between those grassroots groups and local government officials. We are engaged in capacity-building efforts that provide shared distributive leadership opportunities within predominantly Black neighborhoods and serve as a bridge-builder between community residents and organizational leaders. In addition to our work towards systemic change, GHC works to ensure that individual households that hold the burden of historic and present inequity and discrimination are able to maintain the foundation of a place to call home. Families displaced from healthy, stable housing face a significant level of trauma and disruption that has been shown to lead to poor physical and mental health outcomes, lower academic achievement, and an increased risk of homelessness. GHC’s Housing Counseling Teams helps client households at risk of homelessness, often due to threats such as eviction or foreclosure, find or maintain housing through free-of-charge direct support and individualized guidance. We support all clients in need of assistance, though an overwhelming majority of our clients are Black and People of Color due to histories of redlining and other segregatory practices. By working to maintain housing, GHC helps families maintain so much more. |
*How is your organization currently championing social justice and racial equity? | The Greensboro Housing Coalition envisions a world where basic life needs are equitably accessible and readily available, where all people have a safe haven to call home, and where all communities cannot just survive, but thrive. As a community-driven nonprofit, we aim to strategically move from relief to power. We have long understood that we are operating in an environment of long-term systemic racism and unjust practices. The current economic and social crisis in which we find ourselves is a result of centuries-long inequities embedded in our systems. Racial equity begins within an organization. GHC’s Board of Directors has a racial makeup of 63% Black/People of Color. Both the agency’s current Board Chair and Vice Chair identify as Black. In an effort to further center the voice of those we serve, another one of those board members is a resident of one of the neighborhoods engaged in collaborative community organizing work with GHC. This organizing work focuses on creating change in the city’s most severely under-resourced neighborhoods. The racial makeup of our staff is 82% Black/People of Color. When possible, GHC prioritizes hiring from within the communities we serve to create access to opportunities that lead to economic stability and increased leadership capacity. Our new Executive Director is the first African American woman to run the agency in its over 30 years of existence. She transitioned into the role in April 2020 from her previous role doing community organizing work at our agency. In that capacity, her job focused on creating opportunities for marginalized communities to build leadership capacity and make change. Under her leadership, the agency is actively pursuing racial equity training for our staff and board. She envisions the agency being a powerful voice addressing the root causes of housing insecurity and other social and economic disparities. |
*How would a $25,000 general operating grant allow your organization to further the cause? | This grant will allow GHC staff and board the capacity to engage in team-building and strategic planning processes facilitated through a racial equity lens. These sessions will be essential in laying the foundation for our agency’s future. Through meaningful examination of both internal and external factors through a racial equity lens, GHC will have the tools to continually adjust and adapt our services and policies as needed to be in alignment with this vision. GHC focuses on reducing disparities and increasing equitable access through the development of programs that create opportunities for residents in our community that are disproportionately impacted by systemic issues. One of these initiatives includes the Community Support Fund, which was recently created by GHC in an effort to provide our clients with more flexible assistance to help them meet their varied needs, with the ultimate goal of long-term and sustainable housing security for those we serve. This fund is set to encompass more than direct assistance, moving towards strategic partnerships with local governments and property managers to increase tenant education and provide sustainable, affordable housing solutions to the community for the long-term. Furthermore, these funds may be leveraged to expand GHC’s reach and impact by increasing capacity on our Homeless/Rental Housing Counseling Team, which provides services to clients facing housing insecurity. |
*How do you know if your organization's work has made a difference? | Greensboro Housing Coalition has made a difference directly in the lives of residents living in our communities by helping families find or maintain healthy, safe, affordable housing. GHC has an established history of working across sectors on place-based initiatives that preserve housing, increase community capacity, and create equitable and inclusive avenues for community change. For example, GHC was an integral leader in a cross-sector effort to improve the health and wellbeing of one of the most disenfranchised and disinvested neighborhoods in Greensboro. Through community organizing efforts, residents worked with GHC staff on an advocacy campaign that led to the rehab of a 177-unit apartment complex that had high incidence of asthma due to the environmental conditions of the homes. Our work also focuses on creating neighborhood-level changes, like successfully advocating for new sidewalks in an under-resourced neighborhood years before the city had them planned to be implemented. In that same neighborhood, GHC collaborated with community partners to successfully advocate for the remediation and revitalization of a neighborhood playground that had not undergone change in over 25 years. |
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