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Each January at KHRC, we recall the words and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King as we celebrate his life and his work to provide fair housing for all. He famously said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?’” When we at KHRC read the testimonials from households that have received assistance from the Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance (KERA) program, it helps us understand just how much we are doing for our fellow Kansans.

The KERA program not only unlocks home by preventing families with COVID hardships from being evicted. It allows the residents of these homes to rest, recover, and recharge from their setbacks so they can follow their own life’s work of supporting their communities.

S. Simms shared such an experience with us:

“When my unemployment funds dried up, I was at a loss as to how to stay afloat. I wanted to transition away from the career I had prior to the pandemic; I still wasn’t making money from my first entrepreneurial run.  However, I had become involved with my neighborhood improvement association the year before the pandemic started. I saw that they really needed more help and manpower, but were suffering from low participation, burn out, and aging long-term members.

In short, these KERA funds allowed me time to really see that community organizing is something that makes me excited and brings me purpose.  When I didn’t have to worry about keeping a roof over my head and the lights on, I could turn my attention to helping my community to address long-standing issues. I am very grateful to the KERA program for giving me the breathing room to follow my own heart and give back.”

When the KERA program offers housing support to one household who pays it forward by improving others’ homes, we’re helping whole communities to recover from the pandemic. What are we doing for others? We’re ensuring Kansans can lay their heads down in a place they call home each night, ready to face the challenges of a new day.

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A self-supporting, nonprofit, public corporation, Kansas Housing helps Kansans access the safe, affordable housing they need and the dignity they deserve. KHRC serves as the state’s housing finance agency, administering essential housing and community programs to serve Kansans.

I’m a single mom and a social worker. My kids and I have lived in our Topeka apartment for several years, and we absolutely love our home. It’s not just the apartment itself we love, it’s also the neighbors and community that have come to feel more like family.

Due to hardships both personal and COVID-related, I recently lost my job. All of a sudden, one of my biggest fears was staring me in the face. I was about to lose the stability and security my kids depend on to thrive. I felt like a failure with no family or safety net to fall back on.

I’ve dedicated my life to working in the human services field and helping those in need daily. But I had become one of those in need. After fretting and obsessing for weeks, my amazing landlord called me with information about this program that could help with rent. No way will I qualify, no way will they be able to cover all that I need, this just sounds too good to be true, I thought to myself as I hopelessly completed the application.

A few days later, I got a call from the KERA customer service team. Ashamed and embarrassed, I answered the call and began explaining my situation. To my surprise, the woman on the other end of the line was not judgmental or cold at all. In fact, she was the complete opposite! She had this warmth and kindness in her voice that I will never forget. She told me it would be okay and that she would do her best to get me approved.

For the first time in almost a month, I sat down…and took a breath. I wanted to reach through the phone and hug this woman! I wasn’t just some case number on a form, I was a human being. Just then the shame I felt started to melt away. But more importantly, the fear started to melt away. For the first time, I felt hopeful. A few months later, KERA fully paid my past-due rent.

Of course, the panic started to set in again when I still hadn’t found employment and thought KERA had covered my final month of rent at that point. What am I going to do now? I’m so close, yet so far away. I still lead a busy volunteer schedule, coaching Sunflower Soccer and flag football, serving as PTA treasurer and room parent at the elementary school, and running the district’s fall fundraiser. I kept getting up, day after day, helping those I could, while panicking on the inside about how I was going to help myself.

When I received an email about reapplying for an additional three months of KERA assistance, I felt a hope I couldn’t put into words.

Suddenly, I had a vision of my family succeeding again. The KERA program gave my kids their home back. it gave this exhausted, ashamed, feeling-like-a-failure, mom her life back. You gave us a chance to get back on our feet. This is how a community thrives — not by kicking each other when we’re down, but supporting those is need and believing in them when they forget how to believe in themselves.

God bless you KERA staff! You all are angels!

Forever grateful,
Allyson, Jaydyn, Jenna, Brielle and Kalem

Editor’s Note: Once an applicant’s KERA dashboard status reads “Payment Sent,” the household is eligible to recertify for an additional three months of prospective rental assistance at a time, for a total of 15 months. Applicants will receive email reminders to reapply after payments are sent with the these instructions to complete the process.

As we wrap up the holidays and tie a bow on 2021, we at KHRC celebrate the nearly $80 million in KERA funds that provided the gift of home to 33,951 residents of 13,000 Kansas households this year.

Eligible KERA applicants that became homeless after applying have also found temporary and permanent housing solutions through KHRC’s Bridge to Housing Stability (BHS) initiative. BHS organizations across the state have been given $7.3 million in KERA funds to provide hotel and motel vouchers, case management, and rapid rehousing solutions to these households. Thanks to BHS, one family was able to receive the gift of home right before Christmas.

When her 18-year-old daughter was diagnosed with COVID and later contracted a muscle disease that racked up outrageous hospital bills, a single mother in the Manhattan area applied for Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance (KERA) funding to help with rent. While awaiting KERA funding, the family found temporary housing through a social service agency to cope with the financial hardship.

On December 14, 2021, the family ran out of funds to continue living at their extended-stay hotel. After looking into the status of their KERA application, the family discovered their application had been closed due to login issues and an address change.

That day, the family’s social service agency reached out to a case manager at The Manhattan Housing Authority (MHA), one of KERA’s Bridge to Housing Stability partners, for further assistance. MHA contacted the KERA team to help the family finish their KERA application, and noted the family was experiencing homelessness. The KERA team then reopened the application, corrected it, and submitted it for review. By the end of the day, MHA was able to use to use BHS funds to secure the family in a new two-bedroom home with all bills paid until KERA funds became available.

This story represents just one family that’s been helped this year. We can’t wait to help thousands more in 2022! KHRC wishes you a happy new year!