Housing assistance helps people in crisis due to COVID

As the rippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue, Great Lakes Community Action Partnership (GLCAP) is still providing rental assistance that helps northwest Ohio residents keep their homes.

Rental assistance made possible by Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding has allowed GLCAP to help more than 800 households affected by COVID-19 in Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, and Wood County starting in late 2020 and continuing in 2021.

One local resident, Kim, reached out to GLCAP for help when she and her husband were close to losing their home.

Even before COVID-related shutdowns began, the couple was hit by an unexpected factory closure in late 2019, which cost Kim’s husband his job that he had worked at for nearly 15 years. After the factory closed, he was hired to train employees at another company, but this work came to a quick end when workplaces began shutting down in early 2020 due to COVID-19. While Kim’s husband is working now, work was difficult to come by throughout last year’s continued shutdowns.

“It was pretty much a stretch of unemployment,” Kim said.

Without income to afford rent, the couple ended up facing something they had never faced before—eviction. Kim reached out to the local United Way and was referred to GLCAP for rental assistance. She connected with Family Advocate Tina Chavez, who was able to help the couple with COVID Relief rental assistance as well as utility expenses, all funded by the CARES Act.

“You have no idea how much this has done for us,” Kim said.

The rental assistance has ensured that Kim and her husband could keep their home, and the support also gave the couple the stability needed to move forward.

“We are incredibly grateful and so appreciative of GLCAP and Tina for this help,” Kim said.