The Tenant Resource Center is a non-profit membership organization based here in Dane County and is supported by dedicated volunteers, community advocates, and our neighbors like you.
For the past 40+ years, we've provided tenants and landlords with information about their rental rights and responsibilities, provided eviction prevention assistance, and helped those who are most vulnerable in our community secure and protect their housing.
Right now, we're partnering with Roots4Change Cooperative / Raíces Para El Cambio (R4C) to ensure Latino/Latina community members remain stably housed. The need for rental assistance is massive and only growing larger by the day. When coupled with anti-immigrant rhetoric, mass unemployment, lack of access to benefits and affordable housing, it is the Latino/Latina community at the greatest risk of experiencing homelessness and COVID-19.
This pandemic has shined a light on long-standing disparities in both health and housing for the Latino/Latina community and other communities of color throughout the nation. Entrenched, racially-targeted policies and practices at the local, state, and national level have led to discriminatory practices and disparities in rental housing. A legacy of occupational segregation has led to an overrepresentation in low-wage jobs, many of which lack healthcare and other benefits. Although immigrant working, including undocumented immigrants, play an essential role in our economy, these community members are largely locked out of relief efforts by being excluded from government assistance programs.
By combining R4C's on-the-ground, community-based services with TRC's vast knowledge of tenant rights and our Eviction Prevention Clinic, we have been able to successfully assist over 2,000 Latino/Latina community members in the last 2 months. R4C has been working directly with more than 1,000 families in the area providing wrap around services in areas of maternal and child health including doula services, housing and food access, mental health support, and community engagement.
As of now, we know there is a need for over $500,000.00 in rental assistance through the end of 2020; not to mention each month that this pandemic continues to wreck havoc throughout our communities. We currently have over $11,000.00 in requests that need to go out ASAP to help prevent eviction. This work is being supported by the Anti-Racism Committee of the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood Association.
Please support Dane County Latino/Latina renters by making a one-time or ongoing donation to the Dudgeon-Monroe Housing Crisis Fund. Your contribution will help ensure that our most vulnerable community members remain safely housed throughout the pandemic.
Interested in finding out more about housing displacement and eviction in Dane County? Click here to read more.
Interested in supporting us on an ongoing basis? Please consider making a monthly (or even Bi-Weekly!) donation when filling out the form below!