Horry County renters need assistance during the pandemic. These groups can help.
After the deaths of five family members, four from COVID-19, Joyce Johnson has seen her share of loss in the past year.
Soon after the pandemic hit, she added the loss of income to its toll on her life.
A home healthcare aide, Johnson’s clients were wary of accepting people into their homes at the start of the pandemic, and her work decreased significantly. So did her income.
She needed help, and she knew it.
“I don’t know how I would have made it through some of it,” Johnson said.
More demand for rental assistance during pandemic
Johnson, 60, contacted Churches Assisting People (CAP) in Conway for rental assistance. As Horry County residents wrestle with layoffs, job losses and mounting finances during the pandemic, CAP has stayed busy.
CAP provides rental and utility assistance to people in Conway, Aynor and parts of Loris and Carolina Forest. Its demand has skyrocketed during the pandemic. The organization provided 25,500 more meals in 2020 than it did in 2019, and spent $15,000 more on rental and utility assistance, according to Executive Director Donna Bodie.
“I think it’s very hard because I tell my staff all the time that we’re only one step away from being on the other side of the counter,” she said. “And when you’re not used to needing help … I think it’s very alarming to be in that situation.”
Even as rent in large cities hit hard by lockdowns fell, rent prices in Myrtle Beach increased nearly 10% since March, one report concluded.
Various moratoriums on evictions have been in place due to the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean all evictions have stopped. And since missed rent will be due once the federal eviction moratorium expires, many renters face a need for help.
“Every time we answered the phone, it was a new person who had never used us before,” said Tina Shuppy, executive director of Helping Hand in Myrtle Beach. “All the stories were pretty much the same about what caused this situation.”
Johnson has turned to CAP for food and rental assistance in the past, but between losing family members and an uncontrolled pandemic, she quickly became overwhelmed.
“It is a struggle,” she said. “Even though you can’t get to their funeral, you still can’t go to work and function when your mind is all over the place and you’re grieving.”
CARES Act gave a boost to housing organizations
In Horry County, where housing costs are steep compared to the average income, agencies are confronted with demand for housing assistance that outweighs the resources available during a typical year.
But thanks to federal CARES Act funding, organizations like the Eastern Carolina Housing Organization (ECHO) have been able to hire more employees and funnel more funding into emergency services.
ECHO’s eviction prevention program, which can pay up to six months of back rent for people making 50% or less of the area median income, has been in high demand throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CEO Joey Smoak.
The organization has reported serving nearly triple the amount of people in a typical year, which was made possible by extra federal funding. ECHO would usually help around 30 people per month before the pandemic hit, but reported numbers in the 70s and 80s last summer.
The pandemic’s long-term impacts remain hazy as the U.S. reaches the one-year mark of the virus’ arrival in the country. Despite the vaccine rollout, it’s difficult to see the end of the pandemic -- infections in Horry County have reached more than 22,000, with several thousand cases reported since the beginning of December.
On an individual level, it’s tough for Johnson to peer into the future, too.
“I hope that I can stay ahead of myself like I’ve been trying to and budget myself a little bit better but we got to stay positive, you can’t just sit and stay in the negative,” Johnson said. “I’m just praying that the day comes that we can get out of this pandemic.”
Limitations of housing groups in Horry County
A larger portion of South Carolina residents could soon get help through a recently announced $25 million COVID-19 relief program through the state’s housing and development authority. The program allows residents who make up to 80% of the area median income to apply for rental or mortgage assistance, giving the opportunity for assistance to a greater swath of the population.
“Those are folks that can receive assistance that are not usually considered extremely low or very low income,” Smoak said.
Though different groups throughout Horry County provide rental and utility assistance, they’re often bound by how much money can be directed toward one household, or what type of assistance they can give.
CAP generally limits rental assistance to $500 per family, Bodie said, while Helping Hand doesn’t help with nightly or weekly rentals, such as motel fees. Helping Hand is also meant to be a short-term crisis operation, so it lacks the funding to help families who are months behind on rent and thousands of dollars in debt. Still, Helping Hand funded 74 more utility bills in 2020 than in 2019, when the agency helped 349 households with utility payments.
“Sometimes there’s as many [people] that we can’t help as we can,” Shuppy said.
Johnson had tried to talk with her landlord and get assistance through the Salvation Army, but to no avail. After going through CAP, she has a message for others trying to decide whether to reach out for help.
“Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it,” she said. “The only thing they can say is they can’t help you, but you don’t know until you get out there and you ask them and you try.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 6:58 AM.
