'You see me smiling?' LINC beats barriers plaguing utility bill assistance

Dezshanae Scott is one of hundreds of Kansas City renters who have connected to pandemic utility bill assistance with LINC’s help at Morning Star’s Youth and Family Life Center at 27th and Prospect.

The man who stepped off the bus at 27th and Prospect had a lot of trouble on his mind:

More than a thousand dollars in back-due utility bills. Shut-off warnings. And eyesight so bad he couldn’t read any of them himself.

At that moment, among renters who would qualify for federal help with their debts, he was like the roughly four out of five in Kansas City and the U.S. who haven’t gotten help because they either don’t know about the pandemic relief funds or can’t unravel the technological and bureaucratic knot jamming the system nationwide.

But he had a tip that would change everything. Go to Morning Star.

There, Rene Jones was one of the members of LINC’s team waiting inside Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church’s Youth and Family Life Center, not 100 feet away from where the city bus left him.

Kachina Powell, left, and Rene Jones process applications for utility bill assistance at LINC’s office at Morning Star.

“He was a walk-in,” Jones said.

Many arrive this way, hearing from a friend or a family member about what has been happening at Morning Star since utility companies and area relief agencies sought help last spring accessing the region’s share of several billion dollars of federal relief.

All the man knew was that somehow LINC could help him.

But what LINC has done to uncork a severely backlogged relief operation has been remarkable, said John Rich, the executive director of the Mid-America Assistance Coalition, which is helping facilitate the massive fund distribution.

“Thank goodness LINC decided to do the hard part,” he said, “day-in, day-out, working with clients, getting their documentation put together.”

Even now, with multiple agencies trying to help in the process, the relief funds at the area’s disposal are only reaching about 20% of the eligible households, Rich said.

The applications have to be completed online, are many pages long, and require the uploading of bills and rental agreements that then have to pass through a layered digital journey to get funds approved and distributed to utility companies and landlords.

To help people like the man who stepped in off the bus, Morning Star’s team has to manage six different data systems that “currently do not talk to each other,” said LINC Communications specialist Bryan Shepard, who built Morning Star’s utilities relief operation.

LINC created guides and training videos for the staff, he said, but each client’s case is unique with multiple variables at play in determining how much aid can be distributed. Data has to be entered and tracked through multiple systems, guarding against entry errors every step of the way.

“It’s a very time consuming and at times frustrating process,” Shepard said. And dealing with it has required “more staffing and brute force to push the cases through.”

LINC deployed and trained staff, without seeking funding help, at a time when many other non-profit agencies doing similar work were dealing with the loss of staff and volunteers during the pandemic, Rich said.

As of Sept. 9, LINC’s operation at Morning Star had processed more than $784,000 in utility aid, serving more than 535 households, averaging some $1,460 for each.

The impact of the relief across the city is enormous, Rich said.

For much of the past year-and-a-half, renters were protected by moratoriums on evictions and utility shutoffs, but the moratoriums have ended and debts on all those bills still have to be paid. Many arrearages are in the thousands of dollars.

“Housing stability and the utilities in your home . . . go hand in hand,” Rich said. “Health and education are all impacted.”

Dozens of renters came to a clinic at Morning Star in May to get help applying for federal funds for utility assistance. LINC’s team at Morning Star, as of Sept. 9, has processed more than $780,000 in utility assistance.

Dezshanae Scott of Kansas City was one of dozens of people who came to utility aid clinics that LINC arranged with utility companies earlier this year to help with the application process.

“I heard about it from a friend that told a friend,” she said. “They help you out. They’re real nice too. Because I was going through a lot.” But now, “you see me smiling, right? That’s what this means.”

LINC’s work at Morning Star complements the more than 50 Caring Communities programs LINC anchors at school sites across multiple school districts. Here LINC merges its mission with the church, adapting to the needs of the community — including setting up vaccination clinics and supporting the church’s weekly food distributions.

Phone calls come into Morning Star, and many times the caller is crying, said Kachina Powell, who works alongside Jones. “They’re trying to hold it together.”

Many are single parents, some having lost jobs, or they had children back at home with no child care when schools closed their buildings, Jones said. Many are grandparents who have grown children and grandchildren back in their care.

Many, when they come with their bills, have been making small, good-faith payments over the past year-and-a-half. Many are asking for help for the first time.

“They can’t get on top of their bills,” Jones said.

Many times the caller is frantic, having made an online application for help weeks or even months ago, never hearing from anyone — but now suddenly their electricity or water has been shut off.

If they’ve applied, often LINC’s team can find their case file in the regional system, complete the processing and get utility service restored and cut-off notices paused.

On one typical September morning, Jones and Powell were working through a list of 42 people with applications who were at risk of having utilities shut off.

So many of the calls that people in distress make elsewhere lead only to recorded voices asking the caller to leave a message, or someone on the line who can only refer them elsewhere.

When they reach Morning Star, “they’re so relieved to have someone talking to them,” Powell said.

And it is a good feeling, Jones said, to be able to talk them through the logistics and tear down the technology barriers.

“We can have an immediate impact,” Jones said. “We are changing the direction of some lives.”

“They stopped all my disconnects,” said Unique Brown after getting help from LINC at Morning Star at a clinic in July. “I’m grateful for that.”

Unique Brown of Kansas City had been threatened with cutoff notices when she came to Morning Star earlier this summer. She lost her job during the pandemic and she had arranged with her utility company for a payment plan to deal with the debt. But she missed one of the payments and now had to pay the whole bill to keep her power on.

It’s been hard, Brown said, “with lights, gas and water (bills) so high because of the pandemic going on.”

But she left relieved.

“They stopped all my disconnects,” she said. “So I’m grateful for that.”

The personal attention may be the most-cherished part of the work, for both the clients and the LINC staff.

The man off the bus has been coming back regularly since that day Jones helped him with his bills. Sometimes he brings mail that looks like it might be important and Jones becomes his eyes, reading it to him.

“He says, ‘You’re probably getting tired of seeing me,’” Jones said.

Jones has reached out to Truman Medical Centers to get the man a caseworker to get him the professional health care he needs, but of course he can always drop in.

LINC’s Caring Communities at Morning Star keeps the door open.

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer