'This means everything to me'; LINC Morning Star clinic connects families to utility bill assistance

The aid has mounted like a rolling wave of relief in the two months since LINC and Morning Star began collaborating with utility companies and processing applications for utility assistance under federal pandemic funds.

By mid-July some 250 households were reached by LINC staff, processing more than $380,000 to pay off bills, many times ending or intercepting cutoff notices.

“You see me smiling,” 26-year-old DezShanae Scott said after getting help filing her application at the third clinic July 7. “I was going through a lot, and they helped me.”

With more staff trained to process accounts, LINC expects to keep helping families gain relief available to them, carrying on with urgency since the first clinic in May . . .

That first day was only meant to open a crack in the door to the vast numbers of debt-burdened Kansas City renters they knew were crowding on the other side.

But word gets out.

Just like that, the “soft launch” of LINC’s clinic for people applying for assistance with past-due utility bills was swarmed.

Staff at the May 19 clinic, which was jointly organized by utility companies, city services and LINC at Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church’s Youth and Family Life Center, scrambled to help many dozens of people who came carrying bills with past-due balances of hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

On’Rea Knox-Lewis, in the red bandana, gets help from LINC staff in making her ERAP application. “I can take just a moment to get myself back together,” she said.

“With everything being so stressful,” said On’Rea Knox-Lewis, “having past bills, not knowing how you’re going to get to your next job, or what job you’re going to have, this gives me some type of relief.”

She was one of more than 80 Kansas Citians who came to the clinic at 27th and Prospect seeking help with a complicated online process to apply for a piece of the $25 billion in federal funds — including $30 million for the KC area — dedicated to help people battered by the pandemic’s economic blows.

In all, the clinic processed applications for more than $118,000 worth of past-due utility bills — some $1,500 per person — giving hope to people like Knox-Lewis, who said she can breathe a little and “just take a moment to get myself back together.”

In many cases, filing the applications allowed applicants to get their utilities turned back on, or staved off cut-off notices while the applications are pending.

Staff with LINC and sister organization LINCWorks have been training with the Mid-America Assistance Coalition and utilities Evergy, Spire and KC Water to help process a backlog of more than 2,000 applications for assistance in Kansas City under the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).

“The actual application process was hard for those who didn’t have electronic resources,” said Celeste Tucker, KC Water manager of credit and collections, who helped organize the clinic. “So we wanted to do our part for the community and be on site to assist with . . . or even complete those applications.”

LINC and the utility companies are preparing to hold more clinics at Morning Star, arranging an appointment schedule to bring more people in to make assistance applications throughout the summer.

An overflow crowd came for help making ERAP applications at the soft launch of the Morning Star utility assistance clinic with LINC and Kansas City utility companies May 19.

Meanwhile, as of June 9 the Morning Star clinic has processed more than $200,000 in past due bills, helping more than 130 households.

Paula Canty, who came to the first clinic with her 17-month-old daughter, was one of those households.

“For a lot of people who’ve been affected especially by Covid,” she said, “and having to take a reduction in hours, especially with child care being so expensive, this really, really helps.”

“I’m so appreciative of it,” she said.

At the clinic, several workers with laptop computers helped input customer information. The Kansas City Department of Housing and Community Development was on hand to help with applications for rental assistance.

The process is difficult. Applicants must gather several documents including identification, proof of income, lease agreements and utility bills and be able to upload them. The application is a dozen screen pages long with over 35 questions. The relief funds apply only to past-due bills accrued during the pandemic, or since April 2020.

LINC and LINCWorks’ processors assist many customers in completing the application, and then the staff work with utility companies and their databases to verify accounts, debts and eligibility.

One of the customers from the May 19 clinic, while waiting for the process to be completed, had his electricity cut off several days later. But LINC staff were able to expedite the application, and his power was restored within an hour.

Louis Eason, right, gets help from LINC processing his ERAP application. “This means everything to me,” he said.

Moratoriums against utility shutoffs during the pandemic were mostly lifted in May. Eviction moratoriums are also lifting, and Kansas City’s social services providers are anticipating another wave of distressed calls for help.

The Morning Star clinic is powering up to speed many Kansas Citians toward relief.

“This means everything to me,” said clinic customer Louis Eason. “I’m getting big help. They are patient with us, and I feel good about the outcome.

“I’m getting my bills paid.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer