Formerly Contra Costa Interfaith Housing
e g a p e m Ho Summer 2020 Newsletter
Hope Solutions’ Community Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic
A
midst the coronavirus pandemic, Hope Solutions’ critical work of providing permanent housing solutions and supportive services to homeless and at-risk families and individuals continues and is more important than ever. During the health crisis, our staff has increased our outreach services and continues our essential work of helping homeless households move into safe, affordable housing, because, especially during a pandemic, everyone is safer in homes than on the streets. From March to May, Hope Solutions helped move more than 60 homeless households into permanent housing — a 19% increase over the same period last year. At the beginning of the pandemic, our community responded to our immediate appeal via Emergency Funding for COVID-19 and GivingTuesdayNow campaigns.
These efforts brought much needed resources to staff working double-time and allowed us to strengthen partnerships with local food pantries, add virtual mental health services, and provide critical access to online learning tools for our residents. Overall, Hope Solutions raised over $55,000 from individuals, local businesses and foundation partners to meet emergency needs. We have revised our policies and protocols to continue to house and serve all members of our population and work to creatively meet their needs, while ensuring the safety of staff, clients, residents and landlords. Our outreach for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies was met with an outpouring of support from our responsive donor community. Donors collected “RESPONSE” CONTINUES INSIDE >
Financial and Health Aid
Food Insecurity Help
Youth Programs
• We’ve helped residents apply for unemployment and stimulus support, and increased rent subsidy payments.
• We built partnerships with local food pantries and created our own channels for purchasing and safely delivering food to vulnerable residents.
• We’ve ensured every family has access to technology to support online learning and case management outreach (from internet access to equipment).
• We supplemented these highly impacted community resources by directly purchasing and delivering groceries for our most vulnerable residents.
• We adapted the Youth Enrichment Program aka Homework Club to include virtual services so that our youth academic progress continues during the pandemic.
• We delivered over 4,000 pounds of food to our vulnerable families and single adults across the county.
• We offered online tutoring for school-age youth and online early childhood enrichment sessions to preschool-aged children.
• We provided wellness care packages for residents who may be symptomatic, and helped residents monitor symptoms. • We ensured our residents feel connected by providing remote supportive services: parenting groups, tri-weekly interactive activities, game and movie nights. • We provided virtual mental health services to individuals and families.