Photo: Cabarrus members Sabrina Berry and Mark Ortiz stand outside eviction court, where renters face eviction for falling behind in payments.
Evict Less, House More
The Evict Less, House More Campaign aims to provide funding for the Department of Social Services Emergency Rental Assistance program.
In the state of North Carolina, if you are served with an eviction, it goes on your record permanently and it makes it nearly impossible to be considered as a tenant anywhere else. We want the people of Cabarrus County to be provided assistance if at risk of facing eviction due to income inconsistencies.
The Department of Social Services has an emergency rental assistance program that is currently underfunded and could be put to better use. The end goal of this campaign would be to decrease the risk of eviction and homelessness in the county.
Campaign focus
This campaign focuses on allocating $8 million in the county budget to subsidize the DSS emergency rental assistance program. Funding this program would decrease the risk of homelessness by providing funds to someone before they are faced with eviction.
This campaign addresses a widely felt issue. We have heard about this from many people as we’ve gone door-to-door and many people expressed concern about rent increases and not being able to keep up with it. With this campaign, if we win, we are increasing access to a basic need. Everyone deserves to be able to afford to live. Lots of people in the county and within our chapter care about this issue. We think they are ready to take action with us.
