Dear friend,
For a few weeks now we’ve offered the community the opportunity to help “save home” for struggling families without interrupting summer.
We shared the story of Jaida and her family, sleeping in their car in the midst of eviction until they found their way to Crisis Assistance Ministry and received emergency financial assistance to restore their housing just in the nick of time.
We shared some fun ideas to help you celebrate summer without breaking the bank: Ideas to keep you and your family entertained close to home and a joy-filled playlist to keep your toes tapping along the way.
We’re getting down to the wire and there are a few more things that might help you understand the predicament many of our neighbors face every day.
- Last year, our customers’ average gross monthly income was just $1,708 with 60% of their income obligated to rent and utilities.
- According to the Charlotte Observer, less than 1% of apartments rent for less than $1,000 a month. You can’t even get a tiny studio or one-bedroom apartment for under $1000.
- For context, a minimum-wage earner only takes home a little more than $1200 per month. In fact, someone working at minimum wage would need to work 90 hours per week to afford the average one-bedroom apartment in North Carolina.
Our neighbors who come to Crisis Assistance Ministry for help are hard workers. They know how to stretch a dollar beyond the breaking point. But the odds are often stacked against them.
They’ve figured out how to work a little extra, budget carefully at the grocery store, visit the Free Store for essentials—even back-to-school clothes— and every other thing you can imagine. But still, things happen.
The car breaks down. A child gets sick. An accident takes a wage-earner out of work in a job that rarely offers paid time off.
In an instant, everything starts to unravel. That’s when they need a little help to get through a crisis and stay safely housed.
Last year, this community’s generosity made it possible for more than 31,000 of our neighbors to find the help they needed here at Crisis Assistance Ministry. Right now, we need your support to keep that help flowing to families right here in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
It’s easy to do. Just click here, chose your gift amount, give us a little info about you, and hit submit. Just a couple of minutes to help a neighbor have hot water and lights to get their children ready for bed, to make sure a new baby has a safe place to come home, or to help a newly single mom recover from a hardship and chart a path toward future financial stability.
Your gift will Save Home for countless others who will face the threat of eviction or loss of utilities in the coming months.
Your gift during CLT Saves Home will help more families stay safely in their homes with their basic needs met, provide coaching and counseling that empowers low-income neighbors to pursue economic mobility, and engage the community as advocates for people experiencing poverty in Charlotte-Mecklenburg.
