CHOC Services: Helping Residents Navigate COVID's Uncertainty
(Sacramento, CA) - Terri Smyth Canillo is on a mission. As Director of Youth and Family Services for Community Housing Opportunities Corporation, a non-profit affordable housing developer, Smyth-Canillo spends large sections of her day seeking assistance for CHOC households and individual residents who are financially impacted by job loss or job reduction as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year.
On a daily basis, Smyth-Canillo leverages community contacts across three counties, follows leads with community organizations, municipalities, counties as well as the state, which includes applying for all available funds from the $2.6 billion in rental relief provided by California’s SB91. As of this writing, Smyth-Canillo has already sourced $60K in rental assistance and food for CHOC residents, providing peace of mind across numerous CHOC communities, if only until next month. And the need continues to grow.
In Sacramento, where CHOC has five (5) affordable housing communities, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra recently announced that $31.7 million in funding had been secured to “help people on the edge of homelessness because of the coronavirus pandemic.” Guerra explained that funding was sourced “from a combination of federal sources, the US Department of Treasure, as well as the State Business Consumer and Housing Agency,” as well as working with various community partners to get the word out, while tapping the Sacramento Housing Redevelopment Agency (SHRA) to manage the application process and funds disbursement.
The New York Times’ Conor Dougherty, who launched a series on families impacted by potential homelessness during COVID-19, recently noted how “the work of distributing aid has largely fallen to non-profits. They have also filled in the gaps.”
Following this non-profit trend while leading the resident services component for 28 affordable housing communities (creating stability for 1300 households), Smyth-Canillo and her CHOC Services team are uniquely positioned and in direct proximity to helping CHOC resident families and individuals in meaningful ways.
“When the pandemic hit one year ago, we had what felt like 72 hours to pivot and alter every service to our families and seniors,” says Smyth-Canillo. “With constantly changing city and state guidelines, job loss, school closures, and everyone sequestered inside, the team became essential workers for all of our households and our primary focus became food insecurity and income stability…immediate linkages were made for our seniors and at-risk households to receive food at their doorstep. Collaboration with school districts led to door-to-door breakfast and lunch school meal delivery to the children, which also allowed us to be that constant, friendly face for our youth and families at a crazy time filled with chaos and loss. We made sure that constant communication to our households offered education and assistance on accessing emergency pandemic income, stimulus monies, and unemployment, all of which are vital for income stability.”
“As we approach the one-year mark, we continue working on basic needs and food access for residents, while navigating the myriad of funding channels that potentially offer our families long-term housing stability. We forge ahead, doing the necessary, essential work to provide for our households, with a increased focus on education and learning opportunities like after-school and summer programs, and social and emotional healing for our seniors and families, all of whom have experienced (pandemic-related) trauma.”
CHOC Serves 20K Summer Meals (and counting) in Sacramento
CHOC News, August 2, 2020
The figures bear this out. Smyth-Canillo’s CHOC Services team (11 staff members, 6 interns and 5 tutors) has worked tirelessly, securing significant resources to stabilize CHOC resident youth, families, seniors and vulnerable groups since the pandemic began. To date, over $60,000 has been secured for rental and utility assistance; $20,000 for PPE and educational supplies for distance learning; 400+ households have been referred to doorstep food delivery; and over 53,000 meals have been delivered to children who rely on their school nutrition programs for daily needs.
As Smyth-Canillo stated, the work to support CHOC families continues. However, this successful case study only highlights the increased housing challenges faced by American families during COVID-19.
In his New York Times series, Dougherty states how COVID-19 is compounding our national housing crisis. “The nation has a plague of housing instability that was festering long before COVID-19, and the pandemic’s economic toll has only made it worse,” says Dougherty.
UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation recently published a framework for Federal housing policy, which supports Mr. Dougherty’s analysis and advocates for ongoing Federal relief during the crisis:
"Federal COVID-19 relief is critical to keeping millions of households stably housed, given the length of time it will take to administer vaccines to the general public and for the economy to recover to pre-COVID conditions.”
Note: although not directly applicable to multifamily affordable housing for low-income people, the executive summary notes:
“Beyond pandemic response, expand and better target rental assistance for households with very low incomes. To ensure that vulnerable and at-risk populations receive access to critical housing assistance, make housing assistance “universal” for extremely and very low-income households who need it. This assistance could take the form or make use of an expanded and modernized housing voucher.”
In her role as Regional Director for Southern California, Joy Silver aids the development of CHOC's new and renovated communities. Silver is also a member of Lift To Rise, an organization “dedicated to a future where all Coachella Valley’s families have access to safe, affordable and stable housing.” Silver recognizes how CHOC Services’ direct to resident rental and utility pandemic assistance especially aligns with its mission-based efforts to build sustainable affordable housing for low-income families and individuals.
"The need for affordable housing and (youth and family) services has been steadily growing throughout the nation," says Silver. "CHOC, as a non-profit developer, has been consistently active in developing and producing community-based solutions to address one of the greatest challenges of our time, right here in California. I'm honored to work alongside CHOC as we persist in ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to live in beauty and safety, regardless of income level, no matter how challenging these obstacles become."
Founded in 1984, Community Housing Opportunities Corporation (CHOC), a non-profit, affordable housing developer based in Fairfield, California, with offices in Palm Springs, works to create equitable communities for individuals, families, seniors and for those with special needs. CHOC believes that affordable housing is key to self-sufficiency and is achievable with enriching, supportive programs that give pride to residents, stabilize families and improve local economies.