At the September 8 Lancaster County Commissioners Work Session, it was announced that the County Redevelopment Authority will contract with Tabor Community Services, the United Way, and the Community Action Program (CAP) to implement about 2.1 million federal dollars for a homeless prevention and rapid re-housing program. The primary objective of the program is to help financially strapped renters maintain their housing or find replacement housing if recently evicted.
As reported by NewsLanc last spring, the program will be funded by a combination of City and County stimulus fund allocations, and will specifically target low-income renters impacted by the economic downturn.
In addition to the three aforementioned organizations, the program will also commission the services of Abel/Savage Marketing to lead an effort to promote local awareness of the program’s offerings. According to Matthew Sternberg, Executive Director of the Redevelopment Authority, effective marketing is critical to the success of this new program: “We may be dealing with a clientele that is largely unfamiliar with a social services network….But now, with job cutbacks, they’re in a tight situation, but they don’t know where to go with it.”
Sternberg said that Abel/Savage was selected for having “put forward a very thorough proposal that reflected a very clear understanding of the nuances and complexities of what we’re trying to do, which is not just putting out a big ad campaign…, but coordinating the different outreach capabilities of the service provider organizations and trying to fashion a campaign that is very targeted and appropriate to the mission.”
Applicants for the program’s services will first approach the United Way’s Lancaster Information Center (LINC), which Sternberg referred to as a “Central Dispatch.” LINC will screen and refer each applicant to one of two “tracks”: Those in need of simple, quick assistance will be directed to CAP; those requiring more intensive case management will be directed to Tabor.
Sternberg expects the program to be accessed most frequently by those in a one-time bind: “Hopefully, in most cases, it will be a matter of hooking up with that client, determining what they need in order to stabilize their situation, get that amount awarded and paid, and let them get on with it.” In other cases, clients could be eligible for program assistance for as long as 18 months.
Kay Mosher-McDivitt, the Community Homeless Adviser for Lancaster County, noted that support from the program will be provided to families on an as-needed basis: “It’s not going to be a one-size-fits-all. I think that everybody’s assistance is going to look very different—from the case management services to the amount of rental services. It’s based on family need.”
Similarly, Sternberg said, the $2.1 million will not be distributed to the partnering organizations in the form of static, pre-determined allocations: “The goal is to get the benefit out to the community as quickly and efficiently as we can. So we’re leaving the annual budgeting of it open-ended.” If all of the funding is spent in a year and a half, Sternberg said, “we’ll have a year and a half program.”
The Homeles Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program is expected to begin as soon as October 1.
