The Streetohome Foundation’s Rent Bank will prevent more Vancouver residents from falling into homelessness thanks to a $366,000 contribution from Radcliffe Foundation.
The funding will provide the seed money for the city’s first rent bank – a project that will allow people in financial straits unable to meet their rent to apply for a short-term loan to help them pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads.
“Preventing individuals and families from becoming homeless is essential to solving homelessness in the long term,” Rob Turnbull, president and CEO of Streetohome Foundation, said in a release.
Frank Giustra, president of the Radcliffe Foundation and Streetohome capital campaign chair, said in a statement that the project “provides individuals and families who are down on their luck with some hope, which I know will carry on into their children’s lives, into their communities and throughout the city.”
The emergency, interest-free loans are made on a one-time basis and can be used to cover rent, first/last months’ deposit or utilities, as the funds are issued directly to landlords or creditors. They can be paid back over two years.
“It really comes down to the helping out individuals and families through difficult times,” Kate Hodgson, the executive director of the Network of Inner City Community Services Society, the organization that administers the loan, said in a statement. “We are excited to support this innovative and important program and administer these emergency interest-free loans to low-income Vancouver residents who are facing eviction due to short-term financial crisis.”
Streetohome began supporting the rent bank in 2011. Its partners in the project include the Vancouver Foundation and the City of Vancouver, Vancity and B.C. Hydro Power Smart, as well as the UBC Department of Economics.
The project includes training for borrowers in financial literacy, and will be administered with the help of social service agencies and case workers.
It is expected to prevent up to 1,600 evictions in the city a year.
For more information visit www.streetohome.org
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