Help MIFA respond to effects of winter weather

MIFA friends, 

The recent winter weather brought treacherous travel conditions and dangerous cold to Memphis and Shelby County. We left taps dripping. We boiled water. We worked remotely and entertained our kids at home. When the snow melted, we gratefully returned to normal.

But for some of our neighbors, the anxiety we all felt continues. Utility bills will be higher after days below freezing. Employees will lose wages from business and school closures. Parents will exhaust their grocery budgets because their kids were home from school for a week. Homeowners will face the cost of repairing burst pipes.

For many who were barely making ends meet, this will be the crisis that leads them to seek assistance from MIFA. In order to qualify for Emergency Services, applicants must be past due on rent or mortgage or have an MLGW cutoff notice, so we know the fallout is coming when those bills arrive. 

The need was tremendous before this most recent crisis. People are forced to choose which bills to pay, and increasing rental costs raise the stakes; missing only a payment or two can leave a renter thousands of dollars in arrears. In a growing number of cases (a 50% increase over last year), we have to decline applicants because the amount we can contribute won’t prevent an eviction or a cut-off.

Our Emergency Services leadership manages a complex set of funding sources—each with its own assistance categories, eligibility threshold, and restrictions—that they overlay to plan for a year of assistance. They review spending each week and make adjustments to ensure that they are providing as much as they can to qualified applicants while maintaining funds to carry them through the end of the fiscal year. Since our FY24 began in July, our average assistance amounts (including utility, rent, and mortgage payments) have increased from $464 to $662 in order to continue providing meaningful help. But clients are coming to us with utility bills over $1,000 and rental arrears of $2,000-4,000. The team is making hard decisions about assistance when they receive 50-60 applications a day; last week, they received 80 per day. 

Help MIFA respond with a gift to Emergency Services today. Your support ensure that our team can remain flexible and responsive, even as the need for services grows.

On behalf of our team and the neighbors your gifts will allow us to serve, thank you.

Sincerely,

Sally Jones Heinz
President & CEO