Several local non-profits have been working, under the umbrella of the Park City Community Foundation, to help vulnerable residents impacted by COVID-19.
And although the needs of their clients are different, one major item impacting everybody is housing.
The Community Foundation hosted an electronic meeting last week, before Summit County passed a revised Health Order that lifted the Stay At Home directive.
Foundation Executive Director Katie Wright said they have raised about $1.2 million since mid-March for their Community Response Fund. She predicted they will need about $2.7 million for local non-profits to get to the point of recovery.
The Foundation’s new Community Impact Director is Diego Zegarra, who said they know housing and rent is a major concern for everybody.
“In a survey earlier this month, we learned that 93 percent of the families that we partner with through the Solomon Fund have either lost their jobs or experienced a significant reduction in hours. And just as a reminder for everyone, not everyone in this group qualifies for federal unemployment or a stimulus check. We also learned that the biggest concern was rent. It was shared by over 75 percent of the folks that responded to the survey. The Community Response Fund has so far deployed almost a third of the funds it has raised in about a month and a half—totalling $360,000.”
He added they are negotiating with large landlords in the community in order to help tenants who are pressed for rent payments.
Ellen Silver, from Jewish Family Services, gave an example of a family they’re helping. She gave the mother a fictitious name, “Eva.”
“But Eva has been a mental-health client at Jewish Family for some time, dealing with some anxiety that comes from early life experiences. She and her husband have three children. They live in their own apartment. They immediately, when the Resort closed, they within days lost their jobs in a hotel they both worked for. They won’t be eligible for a stimulus check. They won’t be eligible for collecting unemployment necessarily either. And they were off the rails about how they were gonna meet their expenses.”
From Park City Peace House, Kendra Wyckoff said they’ve seen an uptick in calls about domestic abuse since the coronavirus shutdown.
The demand for their emergency shelter has intensified. During this quarter, the average stay at the shelter increased from 30 days to 60 days.
Several clients have also been torn, between their desire to get away from an abusive situation—and their COVID concerns about a communal situation at the Peace House.
Wyckoff said they tried to come up with a solution.
“We’re using our transitional-housing units right now as emergency shelters to mitigate risk. And I think that has really helped, especially with an increase in the average length of stay being double what it has historically been. It, one, helps reduce exposure to COVID-19 across families that are residing in our program, and also just creates with them a more comfortable situation where they have a self-contained unit where they can use their own kitchen and living space.”
And from the Park City Education Foundation, Abby McNulty talked about a different kind of housing problem—when the aspiring students of their Bright Futures program lose access to a school environment.
“And that’s a program initiative for the Ed Foundation that supports first-generation college students up to and through college. One of the things that they’re reporting to us is that they don’t have the physical space to have quiet, to be able to study, and to be able to engage in the on-line learning that exists. So these could be high-school seniors, or college freshman. They are just not able to find a quiet space. There’s lots of family members living in small apartments, perhaps multiple families living in small apartments”
Abby McNulty, from the Park City Education Foundation.
