Outreach to Persons in Need

Through the generosity of many charitable benefactors, the dedicated Outreach volunteer team was able to serve 206 total households with rent or utility assistance in April, May, and June of 2022. That’s an average of almost 19 guests per week. We were closed on Holy Thursday and the week of Memorial Day.

During this spring quarter, we served 12 guests in-person at St. Austin’s Ministry Center. We will continue to offer in-person assistance appointments as often as possible to guests who live relatively close to St. Austin, and we are looking at ways to expand so that we can assist more people at our Ministry Center.

COVID caused young adult “Emily” to lose her job. Thankfully her mom pays for her medical insurance, but Emily’s family can’t help pay her rent. She has a roommate and is looking for a job. Our rental assistance helped keep her and her roommate housed for the month.

“Cassie” moved here about 1 year ago to be close to a couple family members. She ended up being homeless part of that time. She has since received help from a number of organizations and was running out of options when she reached out to us. She is on disability and has trouble finding a part time job that could help her make ends meet with the increased cost of items due to inflation.

We remain grateful to our partners from University Presbyterian Church’s UPLift program. We are very excited that they were able to resume their weekly bus pass lottery in early April. They also offer sack lunches for neighbors in need on Tuesday mornings. Although UPLift had to reduce the amount they are able to offer in financial assistance through our partnership, their monthly contributions still provided the funds to help nearly 25 of the families we served this spring.

As we moved into the unseasonably hot months of May and June, we noticed an uptick in the number of Austin Energy (AE) requests we received. In the first 3 months of 2022, we averaged 27 people in our weekly lottery for Austin Energy assistance. In April, May, and June, we averaged 50 per week! That’s a 185% increase! We had a less extreme (25%) drop in the number of rent and non-Austin Energy utility requests: from 104 average weekly requests in the first quarter of 2022 to 78 average weekly requests in the second quarter.

“Ana” is a single mom with two children. Her 13-year-old daughter is diabetic and has another, temporary medical condition. Ana was set back financially because she initially had no health insurance. They all had COVID a few months ago, and the family had mounting medical bills. Our assistance helped them pay off their utility bill.

“Armando and Cecelia” have 4 children under the age of 8. They try to reduce the cost of their rent by doing home repairs for the owner, but they still struggle to pay for their housing. Their gas utility was already shut off when we spoke to them, and they were on a payment arrangement with their Austin Energy bill that totaled over $2,300. We were able to cover their June Austin Energy bill (our grant allowed us to pay more than we would have given them for rent) so they could keep the lights on and the water running during these hot summer months.

Looking a little closer at the details, 76 Outreach guests received $125-$250 (sometimes more) in assistance during the second 3 months of 2022 through our Austin Energy Plus 1 Funds grant. Outreach paid down Austin Energy bills for 7 additional guests with donated funds because these families were ineligible for Plus 1 (grant) funds or they otherwise needed extra utility support that we were able to provide.

During the months of April, May, and June, Outreach provided 123 households with $225-$250 in rent or non-Austin Energy (AE) utility assistance. We spoke with an additional 12 guests whose landlords unfortunately would not accept a partial payment from us. We continue to screen applicants with eviction notices, notices to vacate, or very high rent debts to let them know that they were not eligible for assistance from us. As much as we would like to help anyone who comes to us, this screening increased the percentage of guests we interview who are actually able to receive assistance from us. In line with our mission, we do our best to provide a listening ear, referrals, and a ray of hope for each person we speak to, regardless of whether they receive material assistance from us.

Two of the people we planned to help had their phones disconnected because they couldn’t afford them. We were able to work with both of them to still conduct our assistance interviews over the phone and help both of them with their rent – one through the case worker that referred her and the other through his apartment complex manager.

“Fiona” has an 18 month old and lost her job recently. Her husband makes only $300 more than their rent each month, so finances are very tight. Fiona said she had several interviews the week before we spoke with her, and hopefully our little bit of assistance will help the family weather this financial storm until she gets a new job and a paycheck.