So far, Hispanic Nashvillians have received 2% of the city’s pandemic assistance money that’s designated for rent, mortgage and utility assistance.
That’s according to the United Way’s report Friday to Nashville’s COVID-19 financial oversight committee. But the nonprofit says the initial data doesn’t show the full picture of its work.
The heat map United Way compiled showed Southeast Nashville, a diverse part of the city, wasn’t getting much financial help. Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda says that alarms her because of the impact COVID-19 has had on her constituents who are mostly Hispanic.
“I’m a little concerned with the number of Hispanic households that have been served,” she said. “I see on the heat map a bit of Southeast touched, but Southeast is far bigger than that.”
“This is the first two weeks of data,” United Way’s chief community impact officer, Erica Mitchell, replied. “Everything is not in here but we will be able to see are the trends over the upcoming weeks.”
She says some of the agencies the United Way works with weren’t able to provide data because they were still putting systems in places to offer services.
Meanwhile, the Equity Alliance has conducted a survey to understand how residents have been impacted by the pandemic and the economic downturn, and it found that 73% of survey takers say they didn’t know how to access assistance.
“There’s a disconnect in how do we make that connection and community engagement piece work to where people know where to go to get resources,” Equity Alliance Co-Founder and Co- Executive Director Charlane Oliver said.
The United Way has been working with the Equity Alliance to connect with churches and other frontline agencies to expand its efforts.
Organizations throughout Nashville will be giving out the second round of funding this week. This initial data is helping inform how the United Way does outreach work for the rest of the money.
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