The Need is Rising as Families Struggle to Keep Up.
In January, requests to our Housing Stability Fund averaged just over $28,000 a month.
By August, that number had climbed to nearly $96,000.
In the first three weeks of September alone, neighbors have already requested more than $81,000 in assistance.
The number of requests tells the same story. Through the first half of the year, we averaged 37 requests a month. In July that jumped to 64. In August, 95. As of September 22, we are already at 88 requests for the month, with more coming in every day.
What the Housing Stability Fund Does
The Housing Stability Fund is one of the most direct ways we help neighbors avoid becoming homeless in the first place. It provides small, flexible financial assistance, most often for rent, security deposits, and past-due utility bills, at the exact moment a family is at risk of losing their housing.
This is not a long-term subsidy. It is a bridge. A neighbor who is doing everything right, working, paying bills, raising kids, can still be pushed to the edge by one unexpected cost. The fund exists to close that gap before it turns into an eviction, a foreclosure, or a family sleeping in their car.
It works because it is fast and flexible. Our team can respond to a request in days, not months, and tailor the assistance to what a family actually needs rather than a fixed formula. That flexibility is what makes the fund effective, and it is also why sustaining it depends so heavily on community support rather than slower-moving government funding cycles.
I have led our financial assistance work since January 2025, and I have never seen numbers like this. I attribute it to a combination of pressures hitting families all at once: cuts to food stamps, rising grocery and gas prices, higher power bills, and for many families right now, the added cost of back-to-school supplies.
Resources exist to help with some of these needs, but working families often struggle just to find the time to access them. Even our church partners, who have long stepped in to help neighbors bridge financial gaps, are feeling the strain and having to scale back what they can offer.
What This Looks Like for One Family
Lauren came to City with Dwellings after leaving an abusive marriage. She became the sole caregiver for her three children and stayed in the family home for a while, but eventually lost it to foreclosure. She and her kids ended up living in a hotel while she searched for something stable.
When she finally found an apartment, her credit had taken a hit from everything she had been through, and the landlord required a security deposit of $2,550. Lauren had already been working with another organization for help, but their funding came on a schedule too slow to meet her deadline.
I worked with Lauren’s landlord to buy extra time, connected her to additional resources, and helped her keep chipping away at the deposit whenever she could. In the end, a final contribution of $539.86 from the Housing Stability Fund closed the gap. Lauren and her three children moved into their new apartment.
Sometimes that is all it takes. A relatively small amount of flexible assistance, at exactly the right moment, standing between a family in a hotel room and a family in a home of their own.
When We Cannot Say Yes
I wish I could tell you every request ends this way. Right now, with need this high, we are not always able to fully fund every request that comes to us. I feel the weight of that.
When we cannot provide direct financial assistance, our team works to help neighbors understand their other options and connect with partners who may be able to help. Our goal, even when we cannot meet the full need, is to make sure no neighbor walks away without some next step forward.
Why This Work Continues
None of this would be possible without the community standing behind it. We are grateful for support from Forsyth County’s Opioid Settlement funds, the City of Winston-Salem, Novant, Atrium Health, The Winston-Salem Foundation, and community partners including Love Out Loud, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Salem Presbyterian, and Centenary United Methodist Church, and others.
But at our current rate of spending, WHICH DOESN’T COVER THE NEED, these funds are expected to last only about six more months.
The need is not slowing down, and neither can I keep up with it alone. If you are able to support the Housing Stability Fund, your gift helps make sure that when a neighbor is one emergency away from losing their home, we can still say yes.
If you’d like to help, view our Double the Donation Matching Gift Page
