INDIANAPOLIS — Going door to door, a group of outreach workers on the Indianapolis east side is making sure people have what they need to survive and keep a roof over their head.
“A lot of organizations, they don’t show up at your door with help for you,” said Nia Belton, the Ross Foundation community outreach team leader. “They don’t show up at your door with a heart to care for you and to care for your family.”
The Ross Foundation educates people on their housing rights, after many have lost jobs or income from COVID-19.
“Pre-COVID, there was already so many systemic barriers and challenges and so many health disparities across the roof,” said Dee Ross, founder and CEO of The Ross Foundation. “Housing is healthcare.”
“A lot of people just don’t know what they don’t know,” Ross said. “So this is why we’re here: to stand in that gap to educate them, to help them through the process, not just to refer them but to connect them.”
The Ross Foundation does this almost every day. It was six groups of people dispersed across Marion County, getting the word out to people and connecting them with resources that will keep them in their homes.
One thing they often find is that many people are unaware of the current CDC national moratorium on evictions, preventing people from being forced to leave, if they’re unable to pay rent. A graph shows about 200 evictions a month were happening across the state when the Indiana moratorium was in place, but increased to 900 evictions a month when that expired and the CDC moratorium was established.
“On the east side, there are a lot of slumlords, there are a lot of landlords that will take advantage of people, especially in situations like this,” said Belton. “If they don’t have the money, you’re gone. If you don’t know what you need to know, you’re gone.”
Volunteers immediately hand renters the CDC declaration form they need to fill out and connect them with free legal services.
“People are like, wow, thank you, I didn’t know that information, this is super helpful,” said Belton. ”I never would’ve known this. If it wasn’t for you, me and my kids would be on the street and we would be homeless.”
Knowing not everyone might be as receptive, Belton said, “As long as you get that one family that’s taken care of, as long as you get those children that are not going to have to go to bed hungry, that are not going to have to go to bed sick, as long as you get that mother that’s not going to go to bed crying and not knowing how she’s going to get everything together, that’s enough for me.”
If you are at risk of being evicted, you need to fill out the CDC declaration form and meet the COVID-19 requirements.
More help is available at this link:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/declaration-form.pdf
