( updated 11:15 am)

FINDING HELP

 

GREENSBORO - Local groups inundated with requests for emergency aid are expanding their hours or offering more flexible hours to meet the need.

Two weeks ago, the Salvation Army's Center of Hope added extra hours Monday through Wednesday from

3 p.m. to 7 p.m. to take requests for help. The center will add Saturday hours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., starting Feb. 7. The extended hours are by appointment only.

Previously, the Center of Hope took requests only from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.

"We're seeing donors as recipients," said Jackie Lucas, executive director of the Center of Hope, which also offers shelter for the homeless. "The faces have definitely changed."

Greensboro Urban Ministry has been taking appointments before and after regular hours since last summer, said Tyra Clymer, director of emergency assistance.

The Guilford County Department of Social Services has a couple of workers who come in at 7:30 a.m. and stay until 6 p.m., said Robbielene Lawhorn, emergency assistance supervisor. Regular hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Officials at the Salvation Army and Greensboro Urban Ministry say they are providing an additional 30 percent or more in emergency assistance.

The three groups offer different levels of assistance, but each helps with mortgage or rent payments and utilities.

The Salvation Army program has no set limit, but the average amount of assistance ranges from $200 to $600 or $700, Lucas said. Each case is different, she said. A recent example: a woman who had fallen behind on her mortgage needed $1,200. She was financially back on track for everything else but couldn't catch up on the overdue payments, Lucas said.

Urban Ministry recently increased its limit to $350 for housing and water assistance, Clymer said. The limit for electric, heating or oil assistance was increased last fall from $250 to $350.

Clymer, who has worked for Urban Ministry for 12 years, said she's never seen so many working people needing help.

"When we noticed that was happening we decided we'd make sure we could try to tailor our schedule to work the working people in," she said.

The typical assistance limit at Social Services is $300, although the agency also goes on a case-by-case basis, Lawhorn said.

The beginning of the heating season has been especially hard, with families requesting help because they just can't afford the fuel oil, she said.

North Carolina received about $45 million in federal aid for its crisis intervention program, which is administered through the county Department of Social Services programs.

Guilford received about $1.9 million.

"It doesn't go far when you're distributing to 100 counties," said Sherry Bradsher, director of the state's Division of Social Services.

Typically, the money comes in November or December and lasts until February or March, enough to get through the heating season, she said. But some counties have already run out, Bradsher said.

"Hopefully, things will get better," Lawhorn said.

"But right at the moment, it just doesn't seem that it's getting better quick enough."

 

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com