mRelief wins the Reconstruct Challenge
What does SNAP have to do with housing stability? Quite a bit, mRelief found, when we pitched for the Reconstruct Challenge last month. Hosted by Access Ventures, the challenge invited hundreds of organizations to develop creative and scalable solutions to a lack of affordable housing in Kentucky.
Zareena Meyn (second from left) with the other winners of the Reconstruct Challenge.
In Jefferson County, Kentucky, there are more than 5,000 evictions each year—nearly double the national average. Access Ventures posed that affordable housing doesn’t just boil down to a lack of units—a primary issue, no doubt, but it’s not the only one. There are so many costs that make it expensive to be poor. We spoke to a woman in Kentucky named Helen who has been affected by housing insecurity. “I went hungry sometimes, because I had to pay the bills,” she shared.
Meanwhile, $41 million in food stamps go unclaimed in Jefferson County annually. Considering most people who are housing insecure also qualify for food stamps, the team at mRelief realized that this is an enormous opportunity that is overlooked by traditional means to affordable housing. Maybe we aren’t positioned to build new units for families who need them, but we can help them unlock economic opportunity.
So, backed by our successful end-to-end SNAP enrollment model, mRelief proposed a solution that enrolls eligible families for food stamps in order to alleviate ancillary costs of safe and affordable housing in Kentucky. The benefits amount to $246 a month on average—which is more than a quarter of the fair market rent for a 2 bedroom home in the county.
mRelief can unlock more than $7.4 million in food stamps, liberating those funds to be used towards housing costs for the housing insecure. Moreover, we’ll enroll 5,000 people for food stamps, so families can eat, and remain housed. Helen is one of them—she was approved for food stamps after applying through mRelief, and she told us “I can afford food that is good for my cholesterol like fruit and fresh vegetables. The food stamps are a great help.”
