INDIANAPOLIS — Thousands of people in our area are having a tough time paying their rent and when the $600 a week unemployment benefits run out this week, making rent could be even more of a struggle.
"My income went from normal to 50 percent," a Marion County woman, who asked not to be identified, said.
The woman told RTV6 the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted her hours and income and getting rental assistance from government programs isn't happening for her.
"I was still right over the limit of income where I would not get assistance because I still was having money coming in and it was right over that," the woman said.
The woman told RTV6 she got rid of her car and made other sacrifices but she still wasn't able to make her rent payment and she is not alone.
"We've seen many families not knowing what their next option is," the Rev. Nicole Caldwell-Gross, mobilization and outreach pastor at St. Luke's United Methodist Church, said.
Caldwell-Gross said the church has been able to help this woman and hundreds of other people with rent and utility payments and it's all thanks to donations.
"We had a very generous member of our church who anonymously donated $50,000 with the condition that our congregation match that donation," Caldwell-Gross said. "So then we were able to raise over $100,000 for rent and utility assistance."
The church will continue to work with the community and help those they can. Those receiving the help here are encouraging others to keep searching for resources because they said help like this is out there.
"At the end of the day the main thing that matters that we have a home and then we have food too so between those two I feel blessed to be able to have that," the woman said.
