My name is Jennifer Peterson, otherwise known as WebJunction webinars. I'm going to go ahead and get our recorded started, and I'm very excited to introduce my colleagues that are joining us for today's session and I'm going to let Brook introduce us for today. Welcome, Brook. 

>> BROOKE: Thank you, Jennifer. 

I'm Brooke Doyle, WebJunction project coordinator and I'm joined by my colleague Betha Gutsche who will be moderating our discussion today. We're so glad you joined to us continue the conversation about libraries and evictions. Some of you attended the webinar or watched the recording, and we hope it was useful, but we know it probably surfaced a lot of questions for you. That's why we're here today, to hopefully address some of those and just really dig into this conversation a little deeper. 

If you haven't watched the webinar, I would strongly recommend that you do after we're done today and that link is in the chat. 

I'm so pleased to have a wonderful group of folks in the room who are willing to share their expertise with us. And I'm going to let them introduce themselves, starting with Kristin. 

>> KRISTIN: Hi, everyone, I'm Kristin Wong, I'm from the consumer financial protection bureau and I've been leading up some of the content development on all of the renter resources that we have on our website. 

>> DEB: Hi, everyone, my name is Deb Hamilton. I'm a librarian with pikes peek library district in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

I'm a strategic services librarian and I work with legal research collection that we have there. 

In other words, I'm a law librarian. Happy to be here. 

>> MADELINE: Hello, everyone, my name's Madeline Youngren, I'm a project coordinator and analyst in the office of data governance andalandal -- and analysis at the legal services corporation. I investigate the unmet legal needs surrounding eviction in the United States. 

>> CATHERINE: My name's Catherine Duarte, I'm a senior analyst for the community development division for the city of Colorado Springs. We work with HUD in the form of housing, houselessness and other topics and my role is strategic planning for using those funds. 

>> BETH: Hi, my name is Beth Hill, I'm a social worker and I work with the Kansas City public library in Kansas City, Missouri, in the role of senior specialist. And what my team and I do is to try to meet the needs of our most vulnerable populations, those being often homeless or struggling with other issues as well. 

>> RANYA: Hi, my name's Ranya Ahmed and I also work at the legal services corporation in the office of data governance and analysis. I'm currently leading the national eviction study that Madeline mentioned. 

>> BETHA: Great, thank you so much. I'm going to give a quick overview to get us all oriented and then Beth and Catherine will be talking about community partnerships that they've formed around the libraryside and community partnerside. Then we'll open up for that question and answer. We put a few categories on the slide based on what questions have come insofar. Hopefully to help you sort of think about what your questions are. Don't be limited to those, although I think they're pretty -- pretty comprehensive. But please begin to think about your questions and it's fine to even begin to put them in the chat and it will help us get organized for that time. 

So I probably don't need to tell you that housing insecurity remains a critical challenge, that's probably part of why you're here. We know that as certainly protections have expired, estimates suggest that over 7 million families are at risk of eviction or foreclosure.

We know that evictions disproportionately affect people of color. We know the effects can be really far reaching and long lasting, such as being hard to apply for credit, to borrow money to purchase a home, families become separated, people end up further away from their place of employment. We know that following eviction, numerous public -- sorry, numerous health outcomes are seen, such as depression, anxiety, suicide. 

We know the clock is ticking for millions of people who face losing their homes and there are viable ways to avoid eviction and foreclosure, this is hopefully what we can get in to today. 

We also know that libraries can play a role in this. I don't have to tell you people feel comfortable walking into a library, it's a welcoming place, they're typically more patron friendly hours. You can think of the library playing a role, getting out basic information about the process, about those forms that are really important.

Obviously making referrals, legal aid being an obvious answer, but we're going to talk about some additional options than just legal aid, because legal aid has much more need than can be met. 

And then providing -- I really want to underscore providing access to technology and information literacy and instruction. Beth will talk about some real specific examples around that, but this is a really big part of applying for some of the emergency rental assistance and it has been a really concrete way libraries can help. 

I want to highlight this eviction resources page that we've recently published. The link is in the chat. It will be continually added to. I would say bookmark it. It's a great resource to find the things we're going to talk about today.

Many things on emergency resources, helpful handouts for you and your patrons. It will have the recording from the day today, the recording from the webinar. This is a great place to come back to. 

If you're totally new, I would point you to the series for free courses on WebJunction catalog that build on the reference skills you probably already have and add that legal dimension to it. They're a great foundation to this work if this is new to you. 

I hope that this graphic can help demonstrate the phases of eviction. I will do a quick breeze through this. The webinar gets into this more -- more deeply, and I want to start with the fact that these cases -- 

eviction varies dramatically from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. 

What it looks like in a different county might really vary. 

So I'm going to try to stay high level, because the general steps remain the same. 

And actions in each of these phases really are the difference between winning and losing the case, particularly early. So it's really important to understand what those look like at your local level. 

So the notice is just the initiation of the eviction. So the landlord will usually notify the tenant in advance of filing.

And usually needs to state the cause and the next steps in the process in that notice. 

So after the notice is given of the intent to file, the time will pass when the issues can be addressed. Hopefully prompt, such as for example, paying back rent or correcting a violation of the lease. 

If a tenant doesn't take that corrective action, then the landlord can take the next step and file. 

Once filed, it becomes public record and can affect a renter's credit rating and the ability to find housing in the future. 

So for this reason, stopping this process very early is really critical and protects renters on a short and long-term basis. 

So once filed, there will be a hearing and there will be a date on that -- a date that is set for the case to be heard before the judge. 

The judge the hear the case and make a ruling. If ruled in favor of the landlord, then the tenant has a certain number of days, again varies, to vacate all their possessions from the property. There may be an option to appeal. 

And then phase 5 is the actual eviction. 

If the tenant loses, there's a certain number of days to vacate. And then if the possessions and the tenant are not out, then they can be forcibly removed. 

So that was super quick and dirty. But I hope it gives you the basics. 

There's a great handout there to -- to go into that in a little bit more detail. 

So I have mentioned ERAP or emergency rental assistance program. You'll hear a lot about this today. It's a federal program put into place to help citizens, both landlords and tenants who are struggling helping patrons access this is a great way the library can play a role. 

Eviction cases do move very quickly through the courts, so time is of the essence. So I hope -- particularly Beth will talk a little bit about what needs to happen and how to move it quickly, if possible. 

I am going to turn it over to Beth, because I think she is going to have great information to share with you. Take it away, Beth. 

I think you're muted. 

>> BETH: Thank you. I'm here. 

Thank you. Thanks for inviting me to be here and to share what I've been learning as well this -- this busy year. 

Once again, just as a quick overview of Kansas City and the community resources, we are -- 

historically have generally just met our patrons that come into the library, as Brook noted, it's a safe place where people can come. Many of our patrons live in the area or sleep in the area, as it were, as many of them are homeless. 

But when Covid hit and everything shut down, we couldn't -- we couldn't see folks. So we rescheduled -- we replanned what we generally did.

So we knew that we had to create a safe place for people to come in, and we also started incorporating the phone more for people to call in to get help. 

And that's where we started learning a lot about this issue of eviction and need, because the people that were calling us were the individuals who were homebound, the ones who didn't know anything about computers, the ones that were afraid to get out. And so now, even now, we continue to get lots of phone calls to help people with filling out forms so that they can try to avoid eviction. 

And then that has led us to the understanding that there are a lot of people that are trying to fill out those forms that can't because they're computer illiterate. Not only do they not have computers, they don't know how to -- they don't -- they simply don't know how to operate computers and they have no interest in some cases. 

So yet the rest of the world has gone along and everything's -- 

is mostly applications are all online. 

So when the problem -- when we saw the problem beginning and we were learning on the fly about ERAP and also the state application for getting housing assistance, we were learning those as we went. 

And they are rather complicated in some cases, particularly when it starts calling for uploading different documents. 

And that, of course, was another challenge for a lot of our patrons, whether they still had the documents or if we needed to very quickly get those documents so that they could upload those and apply. 

In this process, we have also been working with the greater Kansas City coalition to end homelessness with the housing authority, with United Way, and with other agencies throughout the Kansas City metro area, those in particular that are helping with rental assistance. 

So it's -- there's a lot of players in this process. 

In particular, with ERAP, the library, our team is very involved with the greater Kansas City coalition as well as with the housing authority and with the United Way, kmususe me, with the United Way. And they routinely have meetings every week to talk about how the money is being sent, how much money is going where, how much has been spent, how many homes have been attended to. 

So we have contacts through that process. So we're able to go in and check in with individuals about individual's ERAP applications and how far along they are. Brook, did you have something to say?

I just saw your hand up. 

So we -- we try to not -- our first process with our patrons is to talk with them over the phone, let them know what the documents are that they need. 

If they're able to take pictures of those documents and then upload them, that's -- that's great. If they aren't and there's some way they can get to the library with the documents, then we will do the uploading for them. 

We can follow up with trying to find out how far along the process of their application and how close it is to being moved to a caseworker who would then be connected with an agency in the Kansas City area who would then talk with that individual and then begin the process, hopefully, of writing the check to send on to the utility company or the landlord. 

We do the -- we do much of the -- some of that work we can do the same way with the statewide application, but mostly with that one we can only make a phone call to check on their application. 

As to the eviction process in particular, what we have learned from our friends at United Way is that the best thing to do as soon as they get an eviction notice is to call United Way and to begin the process of trying to get connected to a lawyer. 

And that's been a special program that seems to have -- 

has had some success here in Kansas City. 

One of the things that they are advised to do is, first of all, is go to the hearing. Don't ignore it. Go to the hearing. 

And then when you get to the hearing, have as many documents with you as you can to show that you have applied for the emergency rental assistance program and ask for a continuance. 

Now that's not to say what it always works, and it often depends on who the judge is. 

And unfortunately I can't speak to how successful it's been. 

I ask -- I ask those questions and didn't get much feedback on that. 

But it is -- it's obviously if the individual can go in and show evidence that they have been making -- they have done their due diligence to try to fill out applications and to get assistance, that puts them in a better situation for success. 

The other thing in terms of specific stories that I'm learning, as a matter of fact we dealt with a situation yesterday. 

We've been working with one of the ambassadors at the library which are individuals that serve as more or less security for the library. 

And this individual is struggling with that very situation right now, and went to court. She didn't get a lawyer, so she was doing it herself. And she thought she was going down -- she thought she was doing well with it. As it turned out it didn't go in her favor. 

So she brought the paperwork with us so we could determine what the final decision was. 

As she kept talking, she told us more about her situation and what had happened. And apparently it also involved harassment, which then was followed by not helping her get things fixed in her apartment which led to her not paying her rent fully which led to ultimately the eviction and now has led to the landlord putting things in the driveway to keep her from being able to park her car when she comes in. 

So I said, I think you really need to get -- let's go back through this process and see if we can get you back into the -- 

back in to see a judge with a lawyer. 

So she's done that and she said we're going to do it all over again. 

I said, you've got a lot of other information around that story, it's not just about the eviction. 

There are other issues in play here that I think a judge needs to hear. 

So as I said, we're -- we're learning this on the fly as well. 

But it's very apparent that when someone is in this situation, it may just not be a matter of they didn't pay their rent. 

There may be other issues around that they haven't felt as though it was something they could share or they didn't have anyone to talk to long enough to let that come out or it just -- they didn't put the pieces together. 

So I think becomes tremendously important for individuals to have that -- have a resource, whether it's the library, it's the United Way, it's the local university that's got a law school in it. 

Whatever it may be, that individuals can reach out to to say here's my whole story. And that the other people are asking those questions. 

The -- as interns of utilities and that kind, there's a lot of agencies in our area that are helping with utilities. And we also, once again, all of that is often online. 

And so we're having to help people with those applications online, which we spend quite a bit of time doing. 

As a result of all that, our tech access program here at the library is gearing up to become more available to our patrons so that we might -- so they're going to start having office hours as well along with us to help our patrons become more savvy about their -- about their computer needs. 

Even to the point of filling out applications for them as well. 

So this is a many-layered issue, this eviction process. 

It's not just about paying the bills. 

But it's also about technology and it's about helping people feel safe enough to talk about their whole story. 

It's about legal help that is --

doesn't cost an arm and a leg. 

And we continue to learn all the many layers of things that are involved in that process. 

I think at this point I can stop and entertain any kinds of questions or other comments or -- that anyone would like to make. 

>> BROOK: Great, thank you, Beth. 

>> BETH: You're welcome. 

>> BROOK: I think it's really a great -- your example from your staff person was wonderful to sort of unpeel those layers and talk about all the -- the adjacent issues that are often contributing. So it's a really good example. Thanks. 

I'm going to -- I'm going to -- 

there's a question from Sheryl, but I'm going to save it and let Catherine start her presentation and then I promise we'll get into the questions, Sheryl and everyone else. 

So take it away, Catherine. 

>> CATHERINE: Great. Hi, everyone. 

I mentioned earlier what my name and title is but just to give you a better sense of all the funds that we manage from HUD, they go towards affordable housing, homelessness, towards fair housing, nonprofit support and stable housing through infrastructure. And in addition to the strategic planning of these funds, an integral part of that is engaging with stakeholder groups to really effectively address community need and maximize the impact of these very limited funds. 

So I'm happy to talk about our partnership with the library. 

Before I get into this slide, I just want to call out the effect and value of Deb's expertise on these renter's issues that they've had on our partnership with the PTLD. But since not every library has a legal services subject matter expert, my goal today is to deconstruct secret ingredients behind the partnership and to share what any librarian can ask of their colleagues at local government. 

So diving in, I mentioned my division's role mainly because we're a funder. And not only are we a granting organization, but we share similar client base as the public library. 

Obviously we don't share identical missions, but we are very similar in that we serve and benefit all residents. But the needs of the most vulnerable drive or work. 

So most local governments receive -- or local governments receiving money from HUD and most recently from the treasury with these ERAP funds that Brook mentioned to address emergency rental assistance. 

We have a federal mandate to ensure that this funding benefits low-income communities.

So this is why you want to make sure you want to build a relationship with your local jurisdiction's staff that manage these funds. 

You know, every city's different. 

A lot of cities manage services in-house. But here in Colorado Springs we have a pretty smallish staff and all of the funds go back out to the nonprofit community or other agencies who serve this population. 

On the note of grants, I want to call out another successful partnership that we've had with the library in this realm. 

In the past, we've worked with the librarian at the library district who works with grants, the grants librarian who worked with the person in this role in a couple of ways. 

One to address these questions that I have here on the bottom. 

Where do these entitlement funds go from the U.S. department of housing and urban development?

How are they awarded?

How do people even find out about the resources that these nonprofits are getting from the city or the state or whatever your local government who manages these funds are. 

So with this partnership with the grants librarian, we've -- 

they've helped teach classes in federal grant writing to kind of open up and diversify the pool of applicants that we see and to demystify the process for applying for federal grant funds with the nonprofit partners. 

And then on the flip side of that, they've helped our division review and score applications that we receive from nonprofits for funding. 

And this has just been a fantastic way of keeping that channel open of funding information, knowing who's getting what money and what the standards are with what the expected outcomes. 

And it's really helped solidify, you know, the -- our goal as a division to -- to provide affordable housing and provide housing stability services. 

So next slide. 

This slide just shows all the ways that the pikes peek library district has leveraged basic amenities and resources, like community spaces, adult education and programming and collections to help us at the city achieve and work towards our goals of providing critical information to citizens and stakeholders. Particularly tenants. 

And most of this is all about keeping them stably housed. 

Eviction has kind of come up in crisis levels reaching, you know, unprecedented importance now during the pandemic. 

So pre-Covid we had a renter's rights workshops at branches all over the city in areas with high proportions of renters. In addition to preparing the space, the content was critical. 

We had Deb's expertise. We had a lawyer from Colorado legal services come and provide the content and be there for a live Q&A session. 

And we've brought on other partners, disability rights advocates, the justice center, which was a nonprofit that helps provide access to -- access to legal services for low-income communities. 

Redevelopment corporation that helps provide rehabilitative services to homes of low-income homeowners. 

So it's been a really fruitful partnership, and of course post Covid, you know, not using the meeting room, we definitely benefited from the library's assistance in promoting these events as we shifted to virtual workshops. 

As far as forums, earlier this year as part of PPLD's community event series, staff highlighted evictions as a key topic and invited policy analysts, property management representatives and city staff to participate. 

And then in previous years, the PPLD hosted my division at their downtown campus to hold a fair housing/landlord-tenant Q&A session during one of their regularly scheduled off if I and donuts events that they would hold once a week with their weekday morning patrons. Many of whom are on housing waiting lists, housing unstable, or literally homeless. 

And at that event we had Section 8 participating landlords to be on hand to answer questions and share materials on housing navigation, how to report housing discrimination, and had lists of housing providers. 

And then lastly, the book display piece. You may not think of the Fair Housing Act that has -- as something that has to do with evictions. But it's something that a lot of housing advocates and community development practitioners are looking very closely at. 

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of protected class. Various protected classes of any housing transaction, whether you're trying to rent, buy, request an accommodation or repair, or just keep your housing. 

So eviction, you know, as we all know went through the different phases of eviction. 

It's a very administratively opaque process that we don't have a lot of public data on who is getting evicted without doing really in-depth, concerted studies like the kind that Matthew carried out in his research for his book "Evicted".

And because it's a housing transaction and can be applied unfairly again, we know this from Desmond's case study in Milwaukee, we feel that it's important to help all renters understand their rights and know how to report incidents of housing discrimination through all housing transactions, but especially eviction. 

So commemorating fair housing month is a good way to give your collection some exposure and hopefully make you think about the diversity of your collection, especially in terms of media type and audience. 

So last slide. Lastly, these are just a few examples of some of the really fruitful ways that the city and library have stayed on the same wave length in terms of housing discussions. 

And these will look different in every community. 

But, again, the strategy behind this goes into searching for those shared mission. 

So city and library staff have shared leadership roles on various boards and initiatives. 

This is not a comprehensive list, but these are some of the biggest ones that have come to mind and that have been especially active in the last few years. 

The biggest one is membership on the local continuum of care or COC. 

Most communities will have a COC, even if you don't know it. 

This is a HUD-required entity. 

If you're community or your state receives homelessness funding from HUD, they will have to -- there's probably a COC within a couple hours' driving distance of you. 

Most metro areas have one, rural areas also have one. 

It might be your state that is the administrator of this. 

But the job of the COC is to convene housing providers, service providers, health care industry, local governments, people experiencing homelessness, other residents altogether and they have to agree on a coordinated approach to preventing and ending homelessness. 

And this coordination is really key in keeping all the parties informed of where resources exist and how to create new ones where there are gaps in services. 

And library -- various library staff members from the chief librarian to PPLD social worker and various members of my staff have been members of the COC. 

And it's created really great lines of communication on homeless services, housing strategies, and things like that. 

Next is -- Deb can speak to the specifics about her role outside of the librarian and the community through the Justice Center and other committees and initiatives that she's on. 

But I will say that she's the one who recruited me to serve on the Justice Center board. This is a nonprofit that's the charitable arm of our local county's bar association. 

And this role has had a substantial impact on me opening up my eyes to the landscape of legal services available to low-income communities in Colorado Springs. 

And even though we were a funder previously of our local branch or office of Colorado legal services, this definitely informed our funding strategy for future housing -- housing law funding for CLS in our community. 

And then lastly, many libraries out there have snazzy multimedia spaces, whether it's make a space or gallery or sound studio or just art programming. 

So I'll share that when it comes to solving these really complex issues like eviction and affordable housing and gentrification and zoning, all of these really complex issues, the best way we can spread the word and really address this is to take the time and help the community digest this information through art, however that needs to look. 

A few years ago we partnered with PPLD in one of their library branches in the southeast. 

They have a beautiful new sound studio. We partnered with them to run a storytelling event about housing discrimination and eviction. 

We invited members of the community to come and just share their story on the record and we, you know, just had a conversation and talked about their experience. 

We had some housing resources, housing guides and stuff to offer for anybody who signed up.

And the participant interviews were recorded and edited by the wonderful staff at the pikes peek library district. And they were packaged up nicely and we shared them with our local radio station. 

And they played them on air for a good week. 

So that was really great exposure on how -- what gray areas these issues are in people's lives and how incredibly disruptive and talked about, you know, to report these or other resources. 

Anyway, that was -- that was a really good experience, and I just want to share that your multimedia tools are really powerful. 

So share them far and wide especially with your local housing activists and housing providers. 

That's all I have for today. 

>> BROOK: Great, thank you, Catherine. That was super to get your perspective. A high-level look and some really unique ways of partnering. 

Thank you. 

I'm going to turn it over to Betha to start us on the discussion. 

>> BETHA: Thank you, Brook and thanks so much Beth and Catherine. I think it just gives us an ever clearer picture of how libraries really can help in this crisis and also the power of partnerships. 

The library doesn't need to be the expert. 

There are organizations and many agencies just waiting to help. 

Just a note, if you would like to see everybody at once so it feels more like a group, you go to the layout button at the upper right corner of the presentation panel and choose the grid layout. 

And then you can see everybody's faces together. 

Otherwise, if you want to see just the speaker, that's an option. 

So I encourage you to post questions in the chat. 

Those of you who are here in the live session and have the advantage of being able to ask questions of our guest speakers here, we did field quite a few questions through the registration and through the webinar. 

Some of them are very basic. 

So things like, you know, what has been the impact of Covid and what is the -- what is the process of eviction?

We're probably not going to go into much detail here. 

There were a number of links posted that you can find that information going and listening to the webinar recording is an excellent place to start. 

But one question, since it also surfaced again here was sort of this perennial question about providing legal advice and aid. 

There is a short video that articulates that difference and also that I think it's very effectively explored in the courses, the self-paced courses.

But because the question came up today and it was a question in my mind as I was listening to you, Beth, is what about helping people fill out applications, especially when the technology is a challenge and the online form requirement is a challenge?

How do you do that without crossing that line?

And I think you're muted, Beth. 

>> BETH: I'm unmuted now, I think. Okay. 

Well, that was -- that's been a concern of ours as well from the beginning. 

And what we do is we try to do all of that interaction in a private space so that a lot of other [indiscernible] aren't available. 

And they will talk and we will type in the information as -- to fill out the -- to fill out the application. 

If, in fact, they can be there with us, then we have mirrored computers where they can sit on one side of it and we can kind of talk them through that process. 

And if we need to help them upload materials, we can do that. 

And otherwise, they can do it themselves. Usually we help them with that. 

But they can type in the other information. 

But, you know, there aren't a lot of other options for them to get their information in except online. 

So if they -- you know, I suppose to some degree, you know, at times we probably may cross some line. 

But the bottom line is, to try to get them help. 

And they don't have any other options because they don't have a computer and are illiterate, computer illiterate. 

So that's been -- that's how we've opted to tend to it, to try to be as careful as we can be. 

>> BETHA: Great. Thanks. 

Does anyone else have anything to add?

>> CATHERINE: We mentioned in our community our United Way helps with ERAP application filling out as well. 

What they did, they tapped their volunteer corps who assisted in tax prep season. 

I know a lot of libraries might have tax preparer volunteers. 

They're really well suited to filling out the ERAP application just because it's so -- the heaviest part of that is really the income documentation. 

So that's a group of people you can tap if you're getting a lot of questions about ERAP. 

>> DEB: And also just to kind of chime in think there there's a difference between filling out, like, benefit applications online and completing court forms for people. 

And so completing court forms for people, that's where you are going to kind of delve into more of legal advice and acting as some one's attorney. 

Whereas, there's privacy concerns but I don't think you're on that line as much. If you're helping people complete those assistance forms online, you know, clear your cache, clear out your downloads after each person so you're not inadvertently saving anyone's information on whatever computer you're using. 

I would advise that. 

But look to see if there are groups like the United Way. Are you offering that service in your community?

Because then maybe you don't need to provide it. 

As far as getting help with court forms, you know, we have a legal reference policy at our library that prohibits me from completing anyone's legal paperwork. 

But a few things that I rely on are local legal clinics where people can at least get questions answered about how to fill out the forms. 

And I would also recommend checking to see what services are available through your courthouse. 

More and more courts have self-help offices, so they might not be able to complete the paperwork for people, but there are court employees that can answer questions like which form do they need for whatever action they're trying to pursue. 

And they can answer questions about the procedure or how to complete the forms. 

So they can give a little more information than library staff can give about specific court forms. 

So I would check -- again, every jurisdiction's going to be different, unfortunately. We're really lucky in Colorado we have a dedicated office just for that kind of assistance. 

But I know it's really hit and miss depending on where you live. 

>> BETHA: I think that's all very helpful and adds a layer of nuance to that question. 

I do want to get into the tenants' rights question, but we recognize that prevention is critical, trying to intervene before an eviction process gets to the filing stage. 

So I'd like to take this opportunity with Kristin, if you could just talk again about the emergency rental assistance program. 

And there was a specific question about it that came up through the registration forms about when will it end?

So if you could just briefly, very briefly talk about ERAP. 

>> KRISTIN: Yeah, of course. 

Thank you for -- yeah, letting me talk a little bit about ERAP.

So there is over $45 billion that is available to renters to, you know, help them pay, you know, either their rent, some programs also cover utilities, moving costs, future rent, other housing expenses. 

And it's being distributed into kind of like trenches. So there's two separate waves. 

And, you know, the second wave we have until, like, 2025 to, you know, exhaust all the money.

So there's plenty of time. 

At the moment as of October 31st, over 2.5 million households have received about 13 billion in ERAP payments. 

So that's about, you know, $5,200 on average. 

13 billion is like a ton of money, but then also that means that there's still a lot that's still out there for people to take advantage of. 

And on our website, you can go and find ways to take advantage of that money. 

We also have a rental assistance finder tool where you can be connected to your local program and, you know, find what programs are available for, you know, the patrons that you're working with. 

>> BETHA: Great. Thanks, Kristin. 

And we've recognized and important role for libraries to refer people to legal help early in the process. 

And I think I emphasize that and Catherine. 

So I wonder, Ranya, if you could talk briefly about the legal aid resources, free legal aid resources that your LLC is helping with. 

>> RANYA: Sure. Thank you, Betha. 

So there are income eligibility rules, but if you are looking for some legal aid assistance, including help with eviction cases, I'll drop the link in the chat for everybody. 

You can go and find an LLC grantee. 

There are 132 grantees across the nation in every state and territory, and there are approximately 852 offices that operate. 

So there is a lot of wide access. 

That is just the LLC network. 

So there are lots of other civil -- legal civil aid programs that are not affiliated with LLC. 

I do not have a count, but you should explore them in your -- 

in your local area. 

But we'll go ahead and include that link and it will take you to a map. 

And you can -- either you or with your patron or share that link and they can just type in their zip code or their address and the closest office will pop up. 

And including all their contact information. 

>> BETHA: Great, thanks. 

And that's covered thoroughly in the self-paced courses on the WebJunction. 

Let's talk about tenants' rights that came up in questions here and also in the registration. 

It's also again going to be very local. 

Maybe we could hear from Beth and Deb both about how you help people be aware in time of their rights so that they can be effectively advocating for themselves?

And unmute yourself if you'd like to speak. 

>> Sure. 

>> Sorry. 

>> DEB: Okay, I'll go first and then let you follow. All right. 

For us, the biggest sort of program we've had is the partnership with the city that Catherine was talking about in her slides and these renters' rights workshops that we have been hosting for a few years now. 

And so we try to do them at least once a quarter. 

I think even last year we hit five, so that was good to squeeze an extra one in there. 

The bulk of the presentation is from an attorney at Colorado legal services. 

So he sort of outlines everything from reading a lease through, you know, checking out of your apartment to what happens if you do have an eviction filed against you. 

So really sort of outlines kind of everything a tenant would need to know. 

I think the presentation has also proved helpful for us in a way that we didn't necessarily expect in that we have a lot of landlords attend these renters' rights sessions as well. 

So it's been a really great way to reach out to smaller landlords so they're aware of kind of what laws are there for them to abide by and make them kind of aware of things in the process that they could inadvertently do that might violate tenants' rights. 

So that has been an excellent way to connect folks with that information. 

And it's been great -- one of the -- well, great, one of the great things about Covid is we've been able to record the presentation so it has been available sort of outside of the sessions. 

And I think that has been very helpful for people. 

We've gotten a lot of views of that presentation. 

Other programs that I've participated in with regards to renters' rights have been through the nonprofit that Catherine mentioned, the Justice Center. 

Both she and I serve on the Board of Directors for that organization, so it's a legal service nonprofit that offers free and low-class legal help. 

We did an in-person renters' rights in the park this summer while it was nice and we could all be outside. 

At that event, we had a few presenters present on kind of specific topics like reasonable accommodations, service animals, reading your lease. 

And then we also have attorneys available for one-on-one appointment. 

  And then we had a number of related nonprofits there to let people know about their services and so folks could connect with those agencies. 

It was our first time doing this event this year, so, you know, the attendance was a little limited. 

But hopefully we can kind of work out some of the bugs and get that to be a more successful event. 

Another thing that we worked on through the Justice Center and it's actually -- I think there's a link to the videos on one of the pages that WebJunction has sent out. 

And so it just showed up again here in the chat, thank you. 

We created a number of just short animated videos that cover kind of key topics in this area.

Things to note, though, these will probably be specific to Colorado law, and so that's kind of the challenge with all of this is that it really depends on your jurisdiction in terms of what materials you're looking at and how the law will be spelled out. 

But those are a few of the things that we've done to make people aware of what some of their rights are, how some of these laws work. 

So I'd encourage you to not only look at legal aid organizations for this type of information in your area, but also look to see what housing nonprofits are doing as well. 

Because another resource that I point people to all the time that just sort of have on the fly questions and let's say we just had the renters' rights presentation, Brother's Redevelopment who we work with on the larger presentation, they have a hotline called Colorado Housing Connects. That's a great place if people have questions about landlord tenant laws, they can talk to a housing counselor over the phone and get those direct answers quickly million so think both in terms of legal resources, but also housing resources when you're trying to find who is doing what in your community. 

Because there will probably be good help in both communities. 

>> BETHA: Beth, what would you add to that?

>> BROOK: Well, first of all, I want to say that we -- we do have an individual here at the library that can assist with some legal -- at least she's knowledgeable of some legal information. 

But she's not a lawyer. 

So we don't -- we make referrals across the board. 

Having said that, in regards to eviction, we have a group -- 

grassroots group here in Kansas City called KC tenants that started some time ago that a library hosted in one of their events to get the word out about their work. 

And so we have emails and phone numbers for them and we are able to just email them a quick note and say, we're working with someone that's facing eviction, can -- and we're referring them to you and this is their name, this is their phone number, they're going to be calling you so that we can start that process with them. 

They have financial lines that they've established that if someone has a certain amount of income they won't work with them as much as they will with the ones that are really struggling financially and that they will begin that process with them. 

We also have been, as I mentioned earlier, referred to United Way which will then start the process of getting them connected with a lawyer. 

And I think there's something else that I'm trying to remember, but I can't actual it up at the moment. 

So those are our -- our two primary ways of beginning to help get them connected. 

Oh, yes. 

And with the legal aid with western Missouri, we have already developed a longstanding relationship with them and they come into the library about twice a month and sit in to be available to our patrons. 

We also make referrals to them as well. 

And we have -- and they now have a social worker on -- on-site at legal aid as well. 

So, which is very helpful. 

So we have those three different resources that we implement for our -- or make referrals to for our patrons and dealing with the legal issues around eviction. 

>> BETHA:. 

>> DEB: I want to add one more thing too. A lot of clinics have moved to being over the phone. 

If you're in a rural area and you've never had access to a legal clinic before, I encourage you to search statewide to see if maybe there is a phone-in clinic that you can refer patrons to. 

I know the Justice Center we do a weekly call-in clinic and we're getting more and more calls outside of kind of our two-county area that we're used to serving just because there is a huge need for legal services in rural Colorado and there's not as much help out there. 

So it's a great time to kind of think outside of the box since more services have become accessible remotely. 

>> BETHA: Wonderful. 

Thank you. 

There are enduring fees here for a library to have a list of referrals and having built those relationships with other community organizations ahead of time. 

And it's enduring, because beyond the eviction current crisis, it's just an ongoing important role that the library plays in the community. 

I don't want to ignore the question about the emotional exhaustion that comes with being that institution in the community to which everybody turns with their trust and their issues. 

And I think Kansas City library is very fortunate to have not just you, Beth, as one social worker but I believe you have social worker colleagues. 

Do you have any words of wisdom for the many, many libraries who don't have that?

>> BETH: Words of wisdom. Um -- 

>> BETHA: No pressure. 

>> BETH: Yeah, no pressure. 

Yes, I do have other social workers around about. 

I think it's imperative to always set aside time for yourself. 

And as a result of that, that very issue, we've just as of this week changed our hours. 

We were seeing patrons from 10:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon and it didn't allow us any time to do anything else. 

And there's certainly other things, and now as Covid, some of the restrictions have lifted, we can do some smaller programming and so forth now. 

And we haven't been able to do any of that. 

So we've changed our hours from 9:00 to 1:00 and that opens up our afternoons so that we have a little more freedom there to do things. 

And then on Wednesdays, we're in from 1:00 to 4:00 to allow an afternoon. 

I'm not sure how it will work, we'll see. 

But it will give us some time to catch up as well as give us time to do some professional development and so forth. 

So I think for those out there that are trying to meet the needs of the patrons to also realize that you've got to meet your own needs. 

And you don't need to wait until 4:00 or 5:00 at night to start that. 

You can reassess when you're doing at work and how can you reorganize that time so that you have some openings for yourselves to be able to have your own time for mindfulness, your own time for reflection, for reading, and all of that which helps you be a better member of the team as well as to your own life. 

Because I know that I -- I certainly, like everybody else, I have a second shift after I leave work. 

So I'm a caretaker, so it's -- 

it's -- it's very important to figure that out as a team and what does the team need to be able to stay vibrant. 

>> BETHA: Great. 

>> BROOK: Thank you all presenters, panelists, really wonderful to learn from you and hear your expertise. 

I want to thank our partners as well, LLC, OCLC, WebJunction. 

We're going to have another session similar to this on January 12th. The link is going to go in the chat in a second. 

We'd love to have you. It will be similar format. 

And we hope questions continue to surface. And then that evictions resource page as a great bookmark. 

Jennifer, do you want to finish us off?

>> Sure. Thank you all so much. 

There's emails available for those gathered on the panel. If you'd like to reach out to them with additional questions. But otherwise,women courage you to register for the January 12th event and there is an opportunity in registration to add your question there as well.

I will email you all later today once today's recording is posted. 

I'll also automatically send you a certificate if you need that for attending. 

And then I'll also send you right from this environment to a survey. 

We love your feedback on the sessions. 

We'll provide that to the presenters and it will help us guide our next steps in programming. 

So thank you so much. 

Thank you to our captioner. 

Thank you to our moderators and to all of our panelist. 

 Everyone have a great day.