Good Shepherd Center offering help with Eviction Prevention Project

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)–The coronavirus pandemic has led to financial insecurity for people across the Cape Fear. Job losses, furloughs, and business closures mean that many families are suffering from lower or no income at all. A new program is here to help with that burden.

The Good Shepherd Center in Wilmington continues to try and improve the lives of residents in the Cape Fear. Many people have been impacted by covid-19 in more ways than one, which led the Good Shepherd Center to jump start the Eviction Prevention Project.

“We don’t know whether it will last a period of weeks or months, but we have about $370,000 that we can use to make payments directly to landlords and utility companies,”says Good Shepherd Center Executive Director Katrina Knight. “We want to help those city renter households who have fallen behind specifically because of the pandemic.”

To receive aid from the project a person must be able to show that they were impacted financially by the coronavirus. To be eligible you must meet the income guidelines on the Eviction Prevention Project website and rent a house or apartment in the City of Wilmington.

“Now, they are at a point where either they haven’t been able to return to work or to their old level of income,”says Knight. “They will still kind of have this burden on their back of some delinquency to their landlord and or sometimes to multiple utility companies.”

The project was created through funding within the CARES Act. The Good Shepherd Center says there is no better time than now to extend a helping hand to our neighbors.

“It’s really about tending to each other, so that we can ensure a high quality of life for all of us,”Knight said. “We’re interconnected here.”

You can visit The Good Shepherd Center website or visit them at 811 Martin Street in Wilmington to apply for aid through the Eviction Prevention Project.