[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: EFAA Budget Item: 3rd payment

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Young, Mary

Dear Council Colleagues,


I had previously requested that the funds for EFAA be increased from 2 months to 3 months of rental assistance. Staff graciously included the analysis in the memo and supplemented the information earlier today.


Below is supporting information from Julie Van Domelen, Executive Director of EFAA on the importance of the rental assistance program at EFAA and funds for 3 months of rental assistance.


Please keep in mind that the proposed money in the budget is for a one year pilot.


Thank you.


Mary Dolores Young
Mayor Pro Tem
Boulder City Council
303-501-2439

"All ethics . . . rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts . . ." - Aldo Leopold



________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Julie Van Domelen <julie at efaa.org<mailto:julie at efaa.org>>
Date: Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 12:53 PM
Subject: Re: 3rd payment


  *   The scaling up of rental assistance is a core part of EFAA's FY15-19 Strategic Plan based on community needs assessment and where we believe the biggest impact on family homelessness lies:

EFAA's Strategic Plan calls for increasing one-time rental assistance of $500 to three payments (total $1,500)  to better stabilize families at risk of homelessness. Overall, the Strategic Plan calls for reaching 750 households (county-wide). This past year, we prioritized reaching 200 households with children in the City of Boulder with the multi-month assistance as the most at-risk population.


  *   Why 3 months?

Currently there is nothing available between EFAA's one month payment and the County's Housing Stabilization Program (HSP) of monthly assistance up to 18 months (but varies from one-time one month to 18 months). EFAA's Boulder HSP clients average about $3,500 per household.

In searching to reduce housing insecurity, the target is to get housing costs below 50 percent of income. For housing to be deemed affordable, the measure is less than 30 percent of income. Currently the average income of EFAA families is $15,000 and they spend 72 percent of their income on rent. Getting two months of $500 would reduce the cost burden to 65 percent, with a third month reducing this to 62 percent. So the basic answer is that three months moves families to greater housing stability. It also allows for more consistent contact with vulnerable households to monitor and support linking with other services and tracking children's outcomes.

To bring these families to the 50 percent of housing cost mark would require about 6 months of $500 rental payments, or about $600,000.

--
Julie Van Domelen

Executive Director

Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA)

1575 Yarmouth Ave

Boulder, CO 80304

303.951.7665 (direct)

303.442.3042 (main)

[https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0B_knL7QTxdFcTm9UOENiS0NTZHM&revid=0B_knL7QTxdFcQmNNMm1YRjAyb0RhSFV5dGs4OXJTakhpZjVvPQ]

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