A view of the Maryland State House with the School Street in the foreground. Jeff66/Wirestock Creators Stocp.adobe.com Photo.
By Courtney Hall
The author is the CEO of Iworksmc.org, a non -profit organization in Rockville, serving residents of 35,000 Montgomery County, which is annual with programs providing emergency shelters, auxiliary houses, free clothes, food and utility assistance and professional services.
Our neighbors are struggling. The expiration of the consistent covid special aid programs combined with skyrocketing costs and job loss has left more people in homeless and poverty. We should support strategies based on widespread access to affordable housing and help people get from time to time.
Interfaith Works works to residents of Montgomery County, the second wealthiest community in Maryland. We serve people who cannot charge their rent, cannot feed their families, and cannot find jobs that provide enough wages to live a life of dignity. Our programs provide emergency shelter for people who experience homeless, auxiliary housing, essential requirements and business services. We help over 35,000 people in a year.
In our work, we see signs that things are deteriorating and require constant attention, more solutions and investment. If this is so in our “rich” county, it is an indication that things are equal or worse for other Maryland communities.
Access to housing
In our experience, programs that individuals and families remove shelters and streets and re -re -do them, they can have a major impact. Interfath Works has achieved significant success as one of the providers implementing the Rapid Rehabilitation Program of Montgomery County, who takes people out of the streets or out of shelters and to permanent housing, while they get space and stability while getting jobs. Overall, the program has achieved 93% success in transferring people to independent living conditions.
But there are obstacles. Despite implementing the 2020 Home Act to address discrimination, our customers often face situations where the landlords have out of access to the bar from high credit scores and/or monthly income requirement, which is three times the monthly fares – it is not necessary to meet the requirements. In other examples, zamindars refuse to hire our customers because their income for the next year comes from a subsidy, despite the fact that the customer is in a program that is aimed at especially to help them find a job and to be financially stable within that time limit.
The village Wes Moore (D) has offered a new housing agenda that will expand access to affordable housing. It also includes a very essential scheme to strengthen security for tenants. These initiatives can provide enforcement protection to our neighbors who experience homeless, which are trapped in an emergency shelter environment due to lack of affordable housing and resistance from some landlords.
Tenant proposals include: rent control measures; Security to prevent unfair removal; The regulation of safety deposits to ensure that they are appropriate; Extended resources to support tenant representation in court; And a host of measures to promote extended development of affordable housing.
We are encouraged by these initiatives and are ready for bold action. People cannot move forward if the doors are closed for them.
Prevention-based program
We are struggling to stay neighbors. They are challenged from the end of grocery items and other essential things, high fare, lack of access to jobs and special epidemic aid programs.
We should invest in programs that are made on prevention of homeless.
Our connection program connects people with essential resources, including financial assistance to cover unpaid utility bills and overdue rent. Demand is on abduction. The number of families receiving rent assistance increased from 218 in FY 2022 to 358 in FY 2023.
However, our ability to help is done by incompatible funding. From September to December, we had no funds to provide any fare assistance. We did not have to say 300 families who were behind on their rent. We referred to them to other sources of assistance, but those programs have high obstacles to qualify, meaning that many possibilities were abandoned in the cold. Fortunately, liberal donors stepped into the program to fund the program, but not before the families are not negatively affected.
Our Vocational Services Program is achieving great success connecting people with permanent jobs after removing many obstacles, including lack of access to cheap childcare and transportation. In the last four years, we have helped to keep around 400 people in jobs, earning more than $ 10 million in early annual wages. But the demand for these services is more than our current team. Now we have up to 16 weeks to join with new customers.
Giving people permanent options and resources for housing and employment can lead to a long way to ensure that our neighbors get ways to move forward, not slide backwards. As a state, we should invest in programs that are created on the principles of prevention and twist to ensure that everyone has the chance to find a path for stability.
Re -published