Housing Assistance has established the Workforce Housing Relief Fund to provide urgent and ongoing assistance with past due rent or mortgage payments or other housing-related expenses for current, year-round Cape Cod and Island residents who are losing income due to the coronavirus.
To apply for this fund and any Housing Assistance program, contact our intake counselors at either prevention@haconcapecod.org or (508) 771-5400. You can download and fill out our application form, or contact us and we will mail you a hard copy. Aplicativo de Download – Português
Donate to the Workforce Housing Relief Fund online, or contact Anne Van Vleck, Chief Development Officer at either avanvleck@haconcapecod.org or (508)-737-6146.
We are working with our state and federal contracting agencies and following pending legislation to stay in front of any housing relief funds and programs that will be available to our residents. However, we know that there will be gaps in state and federal funding that do not address the unique needs of our Cape Cod workforce, our regional lack of year-round rental inventory, and high housing costs.
Before this crisis, many low- to mid-wage employees were paying almost half their income on housing. These workers’ budgets can’t absorb several weeks of missing wages due to the closure of non-essential businesses. This new fund will help families stay in their existing home until they can return to work or secure other governmental relief, and help alleviate the affordability gap for housing our Cape Cod workforce.
As the regional affordable housing agency, Housing Assistance operates a number of housing relief programs including:
- Private Homeless Prevention, which grants up to $500 per household to pay an immediate expense that will help them stay housed.
- The state RAFT (Residential Assistance for Families in Transition) program, which assists households earning 50% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI) with larger sums of housing support distributed over several months. Governor Charlie Baker has expanded statewide funding for this program by $5 million in response to the pandemic.
- The new Workforce Housing Relief Fund, which will serve households earning between 50% and 100% AMI with a RAFT-like approach that includes up to $5,000 per household in a flexible combination of payments to cover past due rent or mortgage and/or distributed payments over several months to help a household stabilize.
To apply for the Workforce Housing Relief Fund and any other programs for which you may be eligible: Download our financial assistance application, or contact us at prevention@haconcapecod.org or (508) 771-5400 and we can mail you a hard copy.
