Week Eviction Prevention 4—Eviction Prevention
Our eviction prevention work began as a simple idea: what if we could keep people housed by preventing an eviction, keeping people housed for another month and getting at the root cause of most homelessness?
In many ways, it was a grand experiment. We took the leap and created a brand, calling the eviction prevention work One Month Away. As a mostly-renting community, many City Heights residents are one month away from eviction, but with support they could be one month away from stability, hope, a better future.
Incredible donors, people from the community, foundations, and churches, jumped in to help us launch the program. One group in particular, Light Church in Encinitas, contributed tens of thousands to help keep people housed and off the streets. That faith in our idea and willingness to fund it means so much, and we’re thrilled to report that it’s working!
The One Month Away program was designed to help tenants across San Diego County pay for one more month of rent after falling behind financially due to unforeseen circumstances. The program prioritized tenants that had no access to other resources. Tenants over 65 with a fixed income, unemployed tenants that were not able access unemployment benefits and undocumented tenants were all prioritized. The amount of aid the recipients received ranged from $250 to $1,000.
Note: 93% of residents available/willing to comment remained housed. This figure does not include residents who weren’t able to be reached.
1000+ households received one-time assistance between March 2020 and November 2022. Approximately 1/3 of those were contacted via a sample survey and, of those contacted, 93% of households remained housed between 6 and 28 months after receiving that assistance!
The data-gathering work will continue into 2023, but the numbers are encouraging: when you support eviction prevention, you address the root cause of homelessness and major housing injustice in San Diego by protecting renters and preventing the eviction cycle!
Every dollar you give this end of year will support our overall work in City Heights, including preventing evictions, providing new affordable housing, creating jobs, and more.