By Mike Genet mike.genet@examiner.net
The Examiner
Since applications opened the first week of April, the Community Services League has distributed more than $1.4 million to households as part of a rental assistance program with federal grant dollars.
At last check, president/CEO Doug Cowan said, 365 applications have been closed and paid to landlords or utility companies – an average of more than $3,800 paid out. In addition, another 132 applications have received initial approval and will likely be paid out soon.
Those closed applications are part of 1,247 applications received through the portal for Eastern Jackson County. CSL is handling that area in partnership with the United Way of Greater Kansas City, which is overseeing the program over Kansas City and surrounding Jackson County. CSL is scheduled to distribute more than $11.5 million, and the city of Kansas City was scheduled to distribute $14.8 million.
homelessness examiner.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from examiner.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Spring Cleaning for a Cause to benefit Community Services League
Charlie Keegan
Thrift World will make a monetary donation to Community Services League for every pound of clothing people donate to its first Spring Cleaning for a Cause event this Saturday in Independence, Mo.
and last updated 2021-04-08 16:58:27-04
KANSAS CITY, Mo. â Thrift World will make a monetary donation to the Community Services League for every pound of used clothing, shoes and other small household items made either of the next two Saturdays, April 10 and 17.
The two groups are partnering for the first-ever spring clothing drive, dubbed âSpring Cleaning for a Cause.â
By Mike Genet mike.genet@examiner.net
Jackson County officials are working with United Way of Greater Kansas City and other agencies to distribute more than $11.5 million in federal funds for rental assistance.
“We’re putting together a program that will involve all of the local service programs in Eastern Jackson County,” County Administrator Troy Schulte told county legislators.
The county has received the funds, Schulte said last Thursday, and is holding them until it receives full guidance from the federal government, noting how rules with CARES Act funds last year would get changed.
Schulte said about $200,000 from the $11.5 million will be used in the Circuit Court system to address citizens “already in the eviction pipeline,” but a vast majority of funds will go through the United Way and partnering agencies, such as the Community Services League in Eastern Jackson County and Sugar Creek’s Citizens Civic Relief Commission.
By Mike Genet mike.genet@examiner.net
The need was unprecedented most 2020, and while there’s light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, Doug Cowan doesn’t foresee the need slackening much going into 2021.
The president and CEO of the Community Services League estimates that his organization distributed enough boxes of food for 4 million meals for Eastern Jackson County families since the pandemic took off in the U.S. in mid-March.
While that total was greatly augmented by several distribution days with the “Farmers to Families” program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it’s still more than double what CSL would normally distribute in a year.