As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Florida is described as "a surging state," which is not what the president of a housing nonprofit — or anybody else — wants to hear. At Rural Neighborhoods Inc., a NeighborWorks network organization in Florida City, Florida, they are working to keep residents safe. They are working to keep staff safe, too, and that means making sure staff members have the proper protective equipment if they have to do emergency repairs in an apartment or get paperwork signed.
"The growth [of COVID] in the last six weeks has really been overwhelming, more so than in the initial weeks," says Steve Kirk, president and executive director of Rural Neighborhoods. "One major line of business is property management." At first, when it seemed the pandemic might take months to get under control, Rural Neighborhoods put off regular maintenance and responded only to emergencies in their 1,800 units.
"We understood our duty to our residents," Kirk says. "Air conditioners have to work in the summer heat. Stoves have to work to cook." But the realization that COVID is now on ongoing into 2021 and beyond means greater changes. "Sound asset management means problems can no longer be postponed. HVAC filters have to be changed to protect expensive cooling equipment. General maintenance can't be delayed for an entire year or properties would fall into disrepair."
An initial $20,000 grant from NeighborWorks in March helped his organization outfit staff with personal protective equipment (PPE) and retrofit offices and lobbies. Follow-up grants from the NeighborWorks America Rental Resilience Fund and Critical Relief Fund, made possible with significant support from the Wells Fargo Foundation, gave the organization another boost.
The Wells Fargo Foundation, as part of its philanthropic efforts to keep 100,000 people housed in response to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, quickly stepped forward to provide support. NeighborWorks America was identified as one of several national nonprofit housing intermediaries to receive funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation as nonprofit housing organizations navigate complexities to deliver services in new ways and help them access tools and resources to prevent eviction, mitigate foreclosure and stabilize communities.
NeighborWorks America's Rental Resilience Fund will disperse more than $10.2 million to approximately 170 network organizations, and each organization will receive between $5,000 and $400,000 depending on the size of their rental portfolio. Members of the NeighborWorks network manage more than 175,000 rental homes. Additionally, NeighborWorks will be able to provide a little over $2.5 million in grants through its Critical Relief Fund to help defray unexpected expenses and support housing counseling services related to COVID-19.
Kirk says the crisis funding will go toward more sophisticated protective equipment — PAPR (Powered Air-Purifying Respirators) so maintenance personnel can continue to work — even on occasions where COVID-19 residents may reside in units. "The surging prevalence of COVID has grown throughout our Florida portfolio," Kirk says. "Our tasks require measured risk. There are simply moments when ill residents require needed repairs." In rural Immokalee, one Florida hotbed, more than one in 20 residents have tested positive, he says. Employees going into the highest-risk circumstances need to be safe, he says, adding that given the wide community spread, 10 percent of his personnel across the state have also tested positive for COVID. "One case is one too many."
He says the funding will also be used continued efforts to "double down on disinfectant cleaning in senior buildings" Rental resilience funding will go back out into the community.
For the past months, Kirk says stimulus checks and supplemental unemployment income helped many individuals manage their rental payments. "Many of us hold a fear that there is a pending cliff in August," Kirk says, when such payments are scheduled to end. They've been saving the rental resilience funding, issued July 7, toward that purpose.
Meanwhile, Rural Neighborhoods has been changing the character of resident services. Instead of children's activities, group household budgeting or celebrations around holidays, food distributions and COVID testing, set up in conjunction with the health department, predominate. They continue to provide residents with updated health promotion and disease prevention information, which Kirk says still helps residents feel they're part of a neighborhood and true community. "But it's different. This is a new way of operating," he says. "We've learned to line up cars, open trunks and provide fresh fruit and vegetables to our residents, but, gosh, we liked the old way."
Kirk has been through nine hurricane natural disasters during his 25-year tenure with Rural Neighborhoods. He says one of the things he's appreciated over the years — and especially now — is when organizations like NeighborWorks are able to get funding on the ground quickly. "This is the most flexible money available to solve problems that need to be solved right now," he says. It was helpful three years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and it's helpful now. NeighborWorks steps in immediately. "Immediately matters," he says. "Flexible matters."
Marietta Rodriguez, president and CEO of NeighborWorks America, has said that getting funding in the hands of network organizations who know where it is needed can make a huge impact.
Rodriguez says that, as with NeighborWorks, she's watched many network organizations pivot quickly over the past few months, and she knows they have places in mind to direct the funding. "These relief funds are meant to help our organizations direct money to their specific needs during this time," she says. "We realize there are many disparate needs across the country as our organizations work to help their communities recover. And we know, from our experience with the crisis in 2008, that there's more recovery to come."
Being part of the recovery
Isolation is hard on people in recovery, says Elizabeth Leachman, director of marketing and strategic initiatives for the South Bend Heritage Foundation in Indiana. The NeighborWorks organization has 32 supportive housing units where residents, many of them formerly homeless, are putting their lives back together. COVID requires social distance at a time when many need contact, Leachman says. The organization is using part of its $12,000 grant from the Critical Relief Fund to help its supportive housing community with everything from recovery coaching to donuts and coffee — at a distance — in the cafeteria."It's a hard time for folks not to go out and do things when it's an important part of their recovery," she says. The coaches, both onsite and at a nearby facility, help keep residents engaged and working on their next steps. Some of the residents are ready to move to more traditional housing, Leachman says. Some are not. Either way, they want to make sure the residents are supported.
The coaches "provide activities, check up on the residents to make sure they're not feeling psychologically distanced," Leachman says. "It's really important for this group of people to not feel isolated."
The rental resilience funding is important, too, she says. "For us during COVID, the biggest thing we can do is make sure our residents can make their rent every month, providing any sort of relief we can." If the organization can offer rent relief, then the residents can focus on other bills — electricity or car payments or childcare, Leachman says.
So far, her organizations' properties haven't reported any outbreaks. The struggles have been more on the economic side, she says. Thus, they've taken the resilience money and pushed it back into the community. In addition to helping the supportive housing community, the critical relief funds have gone to help stock the food pantry at properties that cater to seniors.
"Being a nonprofit, every dollar that comes in is important," Leachman says. "It's amazing to have funding that we can get out the door, to get our constituents exactly what they need."
