With moratoriums on utility disconnection and evictions still in place, local townships have had fewer calls for help during the pandemic than they initially expected.
In an executive order last week, Gov. Eric Holcomb extended the prohibition on evictions and foreclosures to July 31. Holcomb and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission also extended the utility disconnect prohibition to Aug. 14.
Indiana townships are tasked with providing residents emergency aid for utilities, rent or mortgage payments, medical bills, burials and basic necessities when they have exhausted all other options.
Townships were initially bracing for a surge in needs after many were laid off due to the governor’s statewide stay-at-home order, but the moratoriums have caused many to delay asking for help.
In the past few months, the problems have changed. When the pandemic started, needs were more urgent as many were not yet receiving unemployment benefits, trustees said. They advised residents to persist until they got the benefits, and directed them to local food pantries to tide them over.
Once unemployment kicked in, the requests became less frequent, trustees said.
More residents started to seek help again in recent weeks with the moratoriums in limbo. But now, the status quo of the previous months are in place again, trustees said.
Instead of an increase, townships actually saw fewer people asking for help the last three months. For example, just 49 households in Franklin Township have received help this year, but for the same period last year, 71 households had already been helped, trustee Lydia Wales said.
“Once the employment hit with an extra $600, we have actually seen requests decline. It blew my mind. We geared up for it, but we actually saw a decline,” Wales said.
In White River Township, about 12 residents called for assistance recently when they were afraid moratoriums would be lifted, trustee Mark Messick said. But none of them qualified for direct aid, he said.
Since aid is available from so many other sources, Messick and other local trustees are directing residents to those other resources to meet immediate needs, knowing that once higher-level aid, such as state and federal, reaches its end, they will be left to fill in the gaps.
Trustees cannot help out right now because township aid can only be used in emergencies, according to state law. Since the entire state is under an emergency order and there is no threat of eviction or utility disconnection looming, the townships are simply a funnel to other resources.
“It would be a misuse of township funds to help them first like we normally would … It is kind of flip-flopped now, where the United Way should help first instead of us,” Wales said.
Townships haven’t given out any direct aid recently besides burial, food and clothing assistance.
For example, when families were struggling to secure food, Wales stocked her township’s food pantry with kid-friendly food and spread the word to Franklin Community Schools, helping 27 households.
An annual event, Franklin Township’s clothing drive was especially needed this year with so many unemployed. The township assisted nearly 300 households, giving away household goods, bicycles and more than 1,100 bags of clothing to residents, Wales said. The goods were donated to the township by the community, she said.
Pleasant Township has only seen a handful of requests during the pandemic, and was able to help four families with burial expenses, trustee William Hart said.
But trustees are used to having to turn people away, as many of those who ask do not qualify. Most are turned down because they make too much money or they have not exhausted all options before approaching the trustee’s office, several trustees said. Applicants must not make more than 100% of the poverty line, which means a family of four should earn less than $26,200 annually.
However, those who do not qualify for direct assistance are directed to other local resources, both during a pandemic and under normal circumstances.
Now, trustees are staying busy researching all the federal, state and local resources available to their residents, which are many and ever-changing, Wales said.
Trustees most often ask residents to call the United Way of Johnson County, which received $900,000 in coronavirus relief aid. United Way has given out $41,000 to about 41 households across the county since the grant began in late May, according to United Way data.
When residents call the United Way’s COVID-19 hotline, they can get help with many of the things township trustees would normally help with, such as utility assistance, rent and mortgage payments. But the hotline offers connections to even more resources and forwards aid requests to Gateway Services, a case management firm hired to give residents more holistic help beyond basic needs.
The United Way’s funds are expected to last for many more months, considering residents are being directed to other state and federal agencies for help as well, said Nancy Plake, United Way’s executive director. The organization has until March 2022 to distribute all of the aid, she said.
Residents are also given information about the Indiana COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program, which will provide $25 million in rental assistance to Hoosiers, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The program opens for applications July 13.
For now, trustees are gearing up for the day the moratoriums expire.
Township aid programs are funded by tax dollars collected from residents of the township, and trustees fear the need will be overwhelming, both for their limited budgets and small staffs, they said.
“Every time they extend the moratorium we think, ‘Good, we’ve got a little more time before it goes absolutely crazy here,’” Wales said.
Needham Township has one of the county’s smallest aid budgets. Whether the township will run out of aid ultimately depends on how long the moratorium lasts, what outside help is available, how many seek help and whether residents meet the guidelines, trustee Rita Lory said.
Lory is hoping to see the moratorium extended further, especially if the state has to roll back its reopening plan and businesses are forced to close again, she said. At the start of the stay-at-home order, she worried about being able to help everyone, but has since made peace with the uncertainty, she said.
If townships do run out of money, a trustee cannot deny any request that should be approved under state law, Messick said. Instead, a trustee would fulfill those requests and then bring them to the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, or to the state if the commissioners denied the request, he said.
Trustees remain hopeful the situation will not turn that dire but are bracing themselves in case it does, Lory said.
“I’ve never had to do that before and I hope I don’t have to,” she said. “I’m hoping I can get through at least until December when we get a new settlement, but it is hard to say.”
In the meantime, trustees will keep doing what they can to fill the gaps. Residents are encouraged to visit the trustee’s office virtually, as several trustee’s offices have websites and Facebook pages where residents can find resources and read over qualification guidelines.
With so much help available, Messick’s advice to residents is to not suffer in silence and take action now to avoid the rush later.
“The biggest thing that can help people in need is to communicate that need,” Messick said. “Communicate that need to us, the United Way, churches. If you don’t communicate, we can’t help you.”
