Families in Salem could soon find help paying bills, getting a lawyer, staying housed, and putting food on the table as local nonprofits selected by the city work to quickly disburse $200,000 in social services funds to struggling Salem residents. 

The city of Salem recently reestablished a social services fund as a one-time pilot program to help Salem’s most vulnerable community members, including people and families impacted by ramped up U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity. 

City councilors approved the social services fund 7-2 during a Feb. 9 meeting. They directed the money be split equally between four local nonprofits and organizations deemed best positioned to get the most impact out of the modest resources. 

Those groups are Mano a Mano, the Salem Housing Authority, Marion Polk Food Share, and Legal Aid Services of Oregon.

City contracts don’t require the organizations to assist people affected by immigration enforcement, such as families who are struggling financially after the arrest or deportation of a breadwinner. Instead, the contracts allow the organizations to spend money on housing assistance, health care costs, food and legal aid.

The contract also requires the organizations to eventually itemize the type of assistance provided, and the cost. 

“Because these are city general funds, this money is not encumbered by federal restrictions. The entities can provide the funds to any resident in the community who has a need and meets their eligibility requirements, if they have eligibility requirements,” Assistant City Manager Courtney Knox Busch told Salem Reporter in an email. 

The original intent of the funding was to offer aid to families destabilized by immigration arrests and deportations which have affected dozens of families in Salem in recent months.

Some of the groups receiving money have articulated plans to ensure at least some of the money goes toward that purpose.  

City councilors eventually settled on a more general social services fund meant to assist any community member with access to health care and legal aid, and to address housing and food insecurity. 

Each organization signed a contract with the city last month establishing a June 30 deadline to spend the money and a 10% cap on administrative costs, the contracts acquired by Salem Reporter showed.

Each group will also be required to provide a report by June 30 to the city on how the funds are spent and how many people are served. 

Mano a Mano 

Mano a Mano, a Salem social services nonprofit dedicated to assisting the city’s significant Latino and Hispanic community, said its portion of the city money will go toward rapidly stabilizing families impacted by ICE by providing basic needs, with the primary goal of keeping people housed. 

The group’s executive director, Levi Herrera-Lopez, said the resources will be directed to families that have had members removed from the household by the federal government. That assistance will be in the form of help with expenses like medical bills, rent and utilities. 

“I would say that the way the administration is carrying out the removal of immigrants at the moment is extremely traumatic,” Herrera-Lopez said. 

The organization’s goal is “to make sure that those families don’t go into homelessness, which is our concern,” Herrera-Lopez said. 

He said the organization is still working out how to best identify families in need but will focus on those who are at the highest risk and in need of the most urgent assistance. 

“Most of the families who have been impacted by this are families who for the most part have stable employment but…like most people across the country they are a couple steps away from going into high debt or at risk of being homeless,” Herrera-Lopez said. 

He said part of the issue is that when a family member is taken by ICE, it typically sets the family back thousands of dollars to get an attorney to fight a deportation. Oftentimes when a family member is taken, it forces other family members to have to stop working in order to fight the deportation, which means less income for the household. 

“It is a rapid destabilization of the family,” Herrera-Lopez said. 

Herrera-Lopez said that it is a major misconception and factually incorrect to believe that the city’s funds will all be used to help undocumented immigrants.  

“For the most part, that is incorrect. Most of the families that are staying behind are staying behind because they don’t have deportation orders. In many cases the rest of the family is made up of a combination of citizens and lawful immigrants of various statuses,” Herrera-Lopez said. “All those people out there saying that these funds are going to help undocumented people, they are going to help Salem families so they don’t become homeless.” 

“We want to make sure we stabilize them so they can get back on their feet, deal with the situation that they have to deal with, but then become stable and be contributing to the economy in Salem,” he added.

Herrera-Lopez said he fears that the main stage of mass deportations in Oregon has yet to begin. He said that if and when that does happen, there will be many more families destabilized and far more resources will be needed.  

“When that happens, there’s going to be chaos,” Herrera-Lopez said. “The reality is that right now it has affected many many families, but the main stage is going to be something closer to what was happening in Minneapolis… The worst, from our perspective, the worst is going to be when the agents are authorized to pick up anyone they assume to be undocumented anywhere without any barriers.” 

Salem Housing Authority 

The Salem Housing Authority has a plan to make sure families impacted by ICE have first dibs at some of the city social services money in an effort to avoid families disrupted by an arrest or deportation winding up on the streets. 

That’s according to Director of Housing Nicole Utz, who said the agency plans to work with Mano a Mano among other social services providers to help target the funding for families in the most dire straits. 

The housing authority, Utz said, is working on an online application form that will initially be circulated to partner organizations like Mano a Mano before being released to the broader Salem community.

The housing authority’s goal is to finish the online application system by no later than March 15.

Utz said the agency estimates that the $50,000 could help between 20 and 75 households, but each application will be considered case by case to maximize impact.

She said while most commonly people need about $500 for a security deposit to stay housed, others could need in excess of $2,500 for rent, deposits and other fees to avoid losing housing. 

Sometimes people need help paying past due rent or utility payments, or just need $50 for an application fee, Utz said. She said the agency will also help tenants communicate with landlords. 

“In the past we’ve done exactly what is needed from individuals to either secure their housing by maintaining it, or getting them in the door of other housing,” Utz said. “Our number one goal is for individuals not to have a barrier but we also need to verify that they have the means to continue that housing option long-term. So, we will be requesting some income verification documents and then of course we will be paying directly to landlords.” 

Utz characterized the funds as “barrier removal” assistance which is designed to go out as quickly as possible to people in immediate risk of losing their housing.

Utz said the housing authority will never ask for social security numbers, or race or ethnicity information as it vets families for assistance. Applicants will have the option of going in person to the agency’s community partners which also include Voyager’s Village Affordable Housing Project and Salem for Refugees. 

“My goal is for them to have a connection that they feel comfortable with…whether that’s at their complex, at their location, desired location, so they don’t feel like they have to come into our agency, or have any concerns that we may be monitored or anything of the sort,” Utz said. 

Utz said she is confident the money will go out to families as soon as this month, well before the June 30 deadline. 

“The check is in the mail and our goal is to get this out as quickly as possible, but we stepped back and tried to think about how we could inclusively do this without creating another barrier for individuals getting this funding,” Utz said. 

Marion Polk Food Share 

The Marion Polk Food Share will use its portion of the funding to bolster its existing goal of relieving hunger in the community, but it does not have a plan to target families impacted by ICE given the nature of its operation.  

“Federal regulations require that we don’t ask people who come to pantries for proof of citizenship, so in order to continue to comply with those regulations … pantry volunteers and staff do not ask people about immigration enforcement or ICE,” Marion Polk Food Share spokeswoman Sam West told Salem Reporter in an email. “The need for food assistance is at a 10-year high, so we are just trying to meet the growing need by feeding people with the fewest barriers between families and food as possible.”

West said the food share already has the money on hand and is eager to put it to use. She said the food share will split the funds evenly between food purchases for the food share’s pantries and meal sites, and for costs associated with picking up donations. 

“Food from both of those efforts will be available to families at our network of partner pantries and congregate meal sites, and anyone in need can access food at those locations,” West said. 

Legal Aid Services of Oregon

Leaders of Legal Aid Services of Oregon did not respond to Salem Reporter’s request for an interview or information about how it would spend the city funds.

The organization’s contract with the city showed it is required to provide the following services to the community: 

• Helping with family preparedness plans
• Notary public services 
• Family law
• Housing and landlord-tenant law 
• Assistance with government benefit and entitlements 
• Senior law issues

Have a news tip? Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected]. Contact reporter Hailey Cook: [email protected] .

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