Earlier this year, we launched the Emergency Matched Savings Pilot, in partnership with the Wells Fargo Foundation, to support four community-based organizations in launching or expanding their own emergency matched savings programs. However, we have shifted the initiative to focus on emergency assistance in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our partners were eager to kick off their pilots when, like many organizations, their work was profoundly disrupted by the health and economic crises. In addition to grappling with service delivery disruptions and transitioning to working virtually, our partners found the communities they serve, which are predominantly low-income, immigrant or undocumented, and female, beginning to be deeply impacted by the crises. Many clients lost their jobs or had a reduction in hours, were tapping into savings to make ends meet and were expressing dire need for support with rent, food and other bills. For instance, University of Arkansas and Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese have been grappling with Marshallese clients falling ill or having loved ones pass away as a result of working at meat-packing centers. East LA Community Corporation has been working relentlessly to support clients who are street vendors or part of Mariachi bands and community members left out of the federal stimulus aid. Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation has been trying to keep family violence survivors safe and housed, and Foundation Communities is pooling resources to stabilize families with young children who have transitioned from homelessness to housing programs.

The physical, mental and emotional toll our partners and their communities are experiencing are not unique to them. Around the country, mandatory stay-at-home policies, business closures and social distancing regulations, although critical for public health, have led many low-wage workers, mostly racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants and women, to lose all streams of income. Roughly 30 million people in the United States have filed for unemployment, and many are forecasting the unemployment rate to rise to 20%. Unemployment benefits made available through the CARES Act and state funds may help some families. But many people, such as undocumented immigrants, those in the gig economy and domestic services, who are disproportionately Hispanic or Latino and Black, and those who have been furloughed, will not be able to access the resources that are being made available. And, we can’t overlook the fact that these funds are simply not enough.

The inequitable impact that the COVID-19 crisis is having on low-income communities and communities of color is not shocking. These communities are at a greater risk now because they were at a greater risk before.  Prior to the pandemic, the liquid asset poverty rate—meaning does a family have enough in savings to live at the poverty level for three months if there is a disruption in income—was 37%, with 58% of Black and Latino families living in liquid asset poverty. Moreover, one-third of U.S. families had no savings at all, and four in 10 adults would either not be able to cover an unexpected expense of $400 or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money. This was our “normal,” not because families were not working or were not working hard enough but because of low wages, rising costs of living and rampant institutional, structural and systemic racism in all aspects of U.S. society. With both the death toll and unemployment increasing, these figures will inevitably rise, leaving those who were already vulnerable and exploited to bear the brunt of this crisis.  

Given this reality, we have shifted the Emergency Matched Savings Pilot to an Emergency Assistance Program so that communities can access the funds they need to support themselves and their families during this time. Each partner organization has received $21,000 to offer as emergency assistance funds. The groups will continue working with Prosperity Now to implement a process for distributing these funds in safe, equitable and accessible ways.  Prosperity Now also will work with each one to collect rich qualitative data about the experience participants have in accessing the funds and how the money is used. The goal is to better understand how to design effective emergency assistance programs. We believe that it is critical for families to have access to unrestricted cash transfers to stabilize and take care of themselves during this time. We need to support families now if we want to ensure their long-term well-being and look forward to sharing our lessons from this initiative with the field in August 2020.