City of Spokane COVID-19 Emergency Housing and Utility Assistance

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Notice of Intent to Apply

In January 2021, Better Health Together (BHT) staff participated in a stakeholder meeting with City of Spokane CHHS subcommittee members about challenges Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in our community face in accessing housing assistance dollars. In this meeting, community partners expressed frustration. While the City is distributing rental assistance dollars, the level of liability in the contracts and expectation they are reimbursable only makes these RFPs less accessible to smaller, community-based nonprofits who have meaningful relationships with communities most oppressed and impacted by COVID-19.

One possible solution generated during the meeting was finding an organization to take on the risk, holding fiscal responsibility while passing the dollars to organizations lead by BIPOC and impacted individuals. Stakeholders at the meeting identified BHT as an organization with the capacity to fill the role. In February 2021, the BHT Board allocated staff time to support this proposal.

BHT put forth the following proposal to administer $2M of the City of Spokane's funds for COVID-19 Emergency Housing and Utility Assistance as a fiscal sponsor for BIPOC lead and serving organizations to offer direct rental assistance to the community members they serve.

We know that $2M doesn't come close to offsetting the overall need for rental assistance. Directing these dollars towards trusted community messenger organizations to conduct community engagement will reduce the number of BIPOC community members at risk of homelessness due to COVID. We hope to model opportunities for the City of Spokane to embrace more intentionality when developing RFPs and recognize the unique challenges face by highly impacted and BIPOC community members in Spokane. We support more accessible collaboration between the City, grassroots, and BIPOC-lead service organizations.

If selected, we intend to:

  • Convene a participatory budgeting session with organizations led by and serving BIPOC community members and working in COVID Response to determine the priorities and allocation for this fund.

  • Use funds to support staffing, outreach, and engagement from participating organizations and provide financial housing assistance directly to those in need.

  • Hold the fiscal responsibility for dollars, administer public grants, and ensure the process meets minimum reporting and eligibility standards.

  • Handle back-office finance operations like cutting checks and requesting reimbursement from the City without fees or costs to partners.

  • Distribute 100% of funds to organizations serving BIPOC clients in need of housing or rental assistance.

If accepted, we hope our community partners will join us, giving input on the fund's design, structure, and governance. Please contact Hadley Morrow with any questions, comments, or ideas.: Hadley@betterhealthtogether.org.