Name: Wausau organization looks to assist with rent, mortgage payments
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Wausau organization looks to assist with rent, mortgage payments

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The city of Wausau recently received notification from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that it will receive $371,608 to help assist agencies and households hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday night, the city’s Citizens Advisory Committee reviewed and approved two applications from area organizations looking to use the funding to assist those who have been hit hard by the pandemic, one being the North Central Community Action Program. “We typically run a rent assistance program,” NCCAP executive director Diane Sennholz. “This is something entirely different. We’re hoping to help those people who would never seek our services if it hadn’t been for COVID-19.”According to Sennholz, 4 households in Wausau have already received help from the NCCAP, whether that be rent, mortgage, or utility assistance. She expects that number to go up, with the $58,000 requested expected to be able to assist around 48 households in the Wausau Community, many of whom are expected to be new to the programs offered. “We feel there’s going to be a great need for people losing their employment,” Sennholz explained. “When people go back to work, hopefully, they have jobs to go back to work to. Some of them, I do believe that some people will not have jobs. They’re going to be seeking assistance, and we’re wanting to be able to assist those households who have never requested assistance before." Members of the committee agreed, unanimously deciding to recommend the funding to the city’s Finance Committee, set to meet in early May. “A lot of people are going through unexpected layoffs and furloughs with their jobs,” said Michelle Van Krey, community development specialist for the city of Wausau. “Housing is a very important thing for every family, so if we can use this money that’s coming from HUD through the CARES Act to help North Central Community Action provide rental and mortgage assistance to people, it would be very beneficial for the community.”The other organization to apply for funding, $330,000 worth, is MCDEVCO, Inc., with the plan to use the funds to offer grants and forgivable loans to small businesses with 20 or fewer employees that have experienced a loss due to the pandemic. MCDEVCO plans to use the $105,000 of the funding to allow small businesses to apply for $1,500 grants. The other $225,000 would be available for loans up to $20,000, with one full-time employee hired or reinstated for every $5,000 received in a loan. Ben Lee is the director of community impact for United Way. He addressed the committee at tonight’s meeting, supporting the funding for both organizations. “Almost 40% of Marathon County citizens who are paying rent, pay more than 30% of their income to rent,” said Lee. “That’s actually going to be a pretty huge relief to those individuals. We’re here to stand behind both of those requests. We think it would be a good use of the money and go a long way in helping our community members offset some of the burdens that they are experiencing.”Should the Finance Committee approve the funding, it will then move on to the City Council. If the council approves, the plan will then be sent to HUD for approval. According to Van Krey, that could take a bit of time, but the committee has a plan in place to offer assistance in a more timely fashion.“We don’t know when the funding will be received,” said Van Krey. “We decided to reprogram $100,000 of our own funds that we have here at the city to use immediately, as long as this goes through council, to use immediately with North Central Community Action because we have that money on hand, so we’ll be able to use it and we don’t have to sit and wait for the funds from HUD to actually be received.” The committee agreed to disperse that money between the two organizations proportionately. As for Sennholz, she is encouraging people struggling to make payments to reach out and utilize the resources that NCCAP can provide during this pandemic.“This is what this is for,” Sennholz said. “We understand that this is a crisis, and these are crisis funds. We know that it hurts the heart and it’s a very difficult thing to ask for help, but they need to do that because normally they would be just fine if it wasn’t for this crisis."For more information on the North Central Community Action Program and the programs and assistance that they offer,

The city of Wausau recently received notification from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that it will receive $371,608 to help assist agencies and households hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday night, the city’s Citizens Advisory Committee reviewed and approved two applications from area organizations looking to use the funding to assist those who have been hit hard by the pandemic, one being the North Central Community Action Program. “We typically run a rent assistance program,” NCCAP executive director Diane Sennholz. “This is something entirely different. We’re...

Wausau organization looks to assist with rent, mortgage payments

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