Columbia rent has increased by 20% on average from last year to this year and, local availability of affordable housing has declined 17% over the last 5 years. At Love Columbia, this has translated into daily work to prevent evictions and find both temporary and permanent housing for unhoused individuals and families. 

In 2022, we doubled the number of households we served in 2021, and 2023 is on pace for a 50% increase in households served over 2022. So far this year, we have provided rental assistance and housing coaching to prevent 409 evictions and provided transitional or temporary housing to 102 households including 112 children.

We celebrate every success by ringing our Joy Bell. Everyday, someone announces a goal achieved or step taken forward. We rejoice over every housing application submitted, credit score point increase, lease signed and home loan approved. We commiserate over long waiting lists for income-based housing, unaffordable rent prices and lack of starter homes. We also talk about the housing crisis as often as possible and brainstorm about ways to both comfort those suffering and seek solutions. Our new normal is living in the tension of helping people accept what they can afford and, fighting to give them something better.

Love Columbia’s mission has always included coming alongside people who are struggling to make ends meet. It has typically included financial coaching to create and stick with a budget, save and reduce debt and find a job or better job to increase income. It sometimes included providing financial assistance to bridge a gap in income due to illness or job loss or cover an unexpected expense. Our staff and volunteers are proficient at teaching new skills, finding resources and encouraging goal achievement. In 2023, they have had to learn to provide frequent grief support.

People who are being priced out of their rental housing are moving to places they would never dreamed they would have to live. They are often grieving over what they can now afford and, feeling less safe in unfamiliar neighborhoods that may have higher crime rates.

This month, we helped a 65 year old woman “downsize” from her three bedroom duplex on the south side of Columbia to an upstairs unit in a Northeast Columbia six-plex. She told us the only way she managed to cope was the kindness of our volunteers and staff who helped her pack and move. Since moving in, she has fallen due to an unsecured stair railing and literally gotten lost driving home from the store. In 2019, she paid $850 per month for her duplex. The rent steadily increased until, to renew her lease, she would have had to pay $1,350 per month. This was impossible on her fixed retirement income. So we stepped in with packing tape, words of encouragement and a few tears of our own to give her the support she needed.

As the need for this type of “downsizing” has increased, we have started brainstorming how to engage the community in the housing crisis-related grief support work. We believe some homemade quilts or art, even some fresh paint, could make a difference for those who are experiencing loss. Maybe more “neighbors” showing up to visit parts of town they have not frequented before could begin to bind the community together and make the unfamiliar feel familiar.

We welcome your ideas as we step into new territory. There is opportunity for expanded hearts and community change as we lean into the struggles of our neighbors and lean on one another to seek community solutions.

Pressing forward in hope,

Tannisha and her family enjoyed preparing a healthy taco dinner and homemade salsa from the Love Columbia garden. She is engaged in financial coaching and says she is most excited about reducing debt and working on her credit score. She told us, “Everything is so expensive now, you really have to learn how to manage your money.”

Click to watch Cameron's story and learn how you can make a difference in the lives of your neighbors by volunteering with The Love Seat.

ADU and Pocket Neighborhood Open House Tour  

Come and see small, sustainable, and affordable housing strategies sprouting up in Central Columbia! This event aims to inspire by exhibiting creative design ideas for small and modest size houses.

“It will take many strategies and all of us working together to meet the current need," Jane Williams said. "This tour gives neighbors concerned about the lack of affordable housing an opportunity to see some local creative solutions and gain a better understanding of the role ADUs can play.”

We hope to educate attendees on the zoning ordinances that allow this type of development, and how these ordinances might be expanded further.

Event Details:

Sunday, September 10 from 1:00 - 5:00 PM

Start the tour at Karis Church

Karis Church Parking Lot: 606 Ridgeway Ave (lots of parking!) 

Some of this month's favorite posts @lovecolumbiamo