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2-1-1/CARES join forces in STL; calls surge

With 2-1-1 and CARES Act-funded agencies teaming up, rent and mortgage requests in St. Louis are soaring. Since the week of August 23rd, requests to 2-1-1 for help with rent and mortgage payments from residents of St. Louis City and County are up 90% over the prior 6 weeks, and up 115% over the same dates in 2019. In late August, the United Way of Greater St. Louis and 2-1-1 Missouri began partnering with local agencies that are funded by the CARES Act to help them distribute rent and mortgage assistance available to those affected by COVID-19. Since then, requests for assistance have sharply increased. Similar increases have been found in other cities and states where 2-1-1s partnered in connecting people to aid from CARES. In St. Louis, 2-1-1 serves as the backbone for the greater St. Louis Community Information Exchange (CIE) and Connection Center, helping link St. Louisans to participating CIE agencies. The chart shows the number of calls per week for rent and mortgage assistance during 2020 (orange bars) and 2019 (blue bars). Mouse over each bar to see the number of requests per week. Analyses included 12,476 requests in 2020 and 9,153 requests in 2019. All data are provided by 2-1-1 Counts, a daily dashboard of social needs in Missouri.

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