“Keep Families Housed” aims to prevent homelessness among families with children. The pilot program links rent assistance to measures of childrens’ well-being.
To help address increased local family homelessness, the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA) – a longtime grantee of the Community Foundation – and the City of Boulder have partnered on Keep Families Housed, a pilot program to prevent homelessness among families with children.
The program links rent assistance to measures of childrens’ well-being, and aims to support families’ own efforts to improve their situations, achieve and maintain good health, access education, and maintain financial stability.
“It’s not only more cost-effective, but also significantly better for children to prevent a family from becoming homeless in the first place,” says Julie Van Domelen, EFAA’s Executive Director. “Our goal is to keep families in a situation from which they can build themselves back up to self-sufficiency and financial stability.”
Many hardworking low-income families pay 70% or more of their income on rent each month, leaving them unable to save for emergencies and vulnerable to unexpected bills or reduction in income. As a result, some 500 children in BVSD schools are homeless – 300 of whom live in Boulder – plus many more children who are not yet school-age.
While EFAA currently provides one-time rent assistance annually to 200 families with children at risk of eviction and housing insecurity in Boulder, a contribution of $263K from the City of Boulder means that families who meet health- and education-focused requirements can receive up to three months of rent assistance, and an additional 100 families will be eligible to receive rent assistance. Specifically, families who meet certain criteria can receive one-time rent assistance; to receive a second or third month of assistance, families need to meet markers for well-being and education (e.g., their children must be enrolled in school, and receiving annual medical and dental care, etc.).
“This pilot gets to the root cause issues we’re focusing on as part of our Human Services Strategy,” said Karen Rahn, City of Boulder Human Services Director. “Keep Families Housed is an investment in early intervention to stabilize families and children and address problems before they become more traumatic for the family and more costly for the community.”
