For some, memories of the start of the coronavirus pandemic include long lines at the grocery store and the dismal sight of darkened windows in shuttered businesses around town.
For Hilary Emmer — a tireless community activist and civic leader who has twice served as Vashon’s unofficial mayor — another memory surfaces: she recalls the day, one year ago, when she stood in downtown Vashon, holding fistfuls of $1 bills in her hands.
Emmer launched Vashon’s Virus Rent Fund — a program envisioned as a short-term safety net for islanders economically impacted by COVID-19 — on March 15, 2020. Her first move was to establish the fund under the auspices of Vashon’s Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness (IFCH), a nonprofit with which she already had deep connections.
And on March 18, one of the first windfall donations to the new fund, stuffed inside a paper bag, was handed to Emmer by Liz McConnell, co-owner of O Sole Mio Pizza and its adjacent bar, The Frontier Room.
Emmer, standing on a downtown street corner, looked inside the bag.
It was stuffed with $1 bills, which had adorned the ceiling of the bar until McConnell took them down after the bar’s mandatory closure.
“There were some interesting words on some of the dollars, written in magic marker,” Emmer said with a laugh.
Over the course of the next week, McConnell handed Emmer several more envelopes of cash — the take from tip jars at the coffee shop adjacent to the pizza restaurant, and pizza giveaways the restaurant held to empty its refrigerator of ingredients.
In all, McConnell’s contributions in those early days of the Virus Rent Fund accounted to more than $1,500 — mostly in $1 dollar bills.
By the end of March, Emmer had received money from 100 more people, adding up to approximately $27,000 more for the fund — a monthly haul she has equaled or bettered several times in the past year.
Still, she said, she’ll always remember McConnell’s donation as the start of it all.
“I consider Liz [to have given me] the seed money for this program, which has now blossomed to more than $330,000 collected since that day a year ago,” Emmer said.
The Fund’s first annual report details the fund’s balances and numbers of islanders who have been helped by it.
From April 2020 to February 2021, the fund has disbursed $282,735 to islanders in need of assistance with their rent and/or utilities because of COVID-related job loss or reduced hours. Typically, each month for the past year, more than 30 families with combined households numbering more than 100 adults and children have been helped by the fund.
Because of IFCH’s nonprofit status, Emmer has also been able to collect more than $50,000 in grants for the fund over the past year, and she has also received almost $76,000 from VashonBePrepared’s COVID Relief Fund.
The rest of the money donated in the past year — almost $204,000, representing 63 percent of all funds raised — has come from 716 donations from islanders.
“This island is to be congratulated on stepping up to meet the need,” Emmer said. “Some people are giving monthly donations, some have given one time. It is the collectiveness of this island that makes it a great place to live.”
Currently, there is a balance of $47,535 in the fund — but as April’s rent payments loom, Emmer is still ceaselessly fundraising.
“I keep telling people I’m only going to do it as long as I have money,” she said.
Emmer said she wants to make one thing clear: the fund is used only to pay a portion of the rent and/or utilities for people who have reduced hours or have lost their jobs because of the pandemic — it is not a resource for islanders who are struggling to make ends meet for other reasons.
Other programs on the island, including the broader programs of IFCH, address the deeper, long-term needs of islanders who need housing assistance for reasons unrelated to the pandemic, she said.
Rents are high on Vashon — most applications for assistance that Emmer receives show households paying at least $2,000 a month in rent.
“There is a lot of rent that is $2500,” she said. “I don’t know how people pay it.”
The Virus Rent Fund pays, at most, $1,000 per month per family for rent. In addition to that, Emmer is also able to offer up to $200 a month for some families to pay utilities, but that assistance maxes out at $1000 per household.
To receive assistance, applicants must fill out a simple, one-page application each month, listing their incomes, and the number of people in their household and their ages. After Emmer verifies and approves applications, she mails checks directly to the applicants’ landlords. Utility payments also go directly to Puget Sound Energy, which also has provided $4,500 in grant money for the fund.
It’s a win-win scenario, Emmer said, that keeps families safe, lights and heat on, and money circulating on Vashon.
“Checks go directly to the homeowners, who are also islanders — many seniors,” she said. “Island renters get peace of mind from knowing that some of their money is being paid through this grant and they pay the remaining amount. In turn, people have some money to buy goods on the island.”
And as a longtime islander active in civic affairs, Emmer is well connected — she currently serves as the chair of Vashon’s Social Service Network, an umbrella group of 11 nonprofit organizations on the island. And in managing the rent fund, she’s forged especially close relationships with Vashon Youth & Family Services, Comunidad Latina de Vashon, and the local chapter of the Society of St. Vincent dePaul.
John McCoy, vice-president of SVdP-Vashon, said that he frequently talks with Emmer in order to identify families and individuals in need and avoid duplicating efforts.
Since the pandemic began, he said, SVdP-Vashon has provided almost $116,00 to islanders in need, with almost $87,000 of that money going to rent assistance.
And while SVdP-Vashon also helps those affected by COVID — especially those ineligible for unemployment benefits or stimulus checks — it is also a trusted resource for those who are in need due to reasons other than the pandemic, said McCoy.
Emmer also continues to work closely with IFCH — an organization with a long-term commitment to assisting islanders in need of housing for a wide range of reasons.
For that reason, she said, it’s important that all donations made to IFCH’s Virus Rent Fund should be clearly noted as being for that specific fund and not ICPH’s other programs.
And despite Emmer’s relentless efforts to both manage the rent fund, fundraise for it, and liaison with other organizations to make sure everyone’s needs are being met, she is quick to point out that she didn’t come up with the concept of starting the fund.
“I’m not an idea person,” she said.
She said she was recruited for the job last March by Jim Marsh, who was then executive director of Vashon’s Chamber of Commerce.
In an email, Marsh said that another islander, Jeanne Dougherty, had pitched an idea for a rent relief fund to him and that he had immediately thought of Emmer.
“I told Jeanne that Hilary would be a great person to get money to those in need,” Marsh said. “Hilary has a ton of integrity, is very compassionate, would work efficiently, and holds really good boundaries with people. I knew that every dollar she received would go to someone who really needed it.”
For Emmer, it’s been a cycle of helping that she doesn’t see coming to an end for at least the next six months, if not longer.
“I had no idea what I was doing or getting myself into,” Emmer said, of the early days of her efforts. “I had no idea how it was going to last.”
To receive an application for assistance from the Virus Rent Fund, call Hilary Emmer at at 206-463-7277 or email hilonvashon@yahoo.com. To donate to the fund, send a check to IFCH-Virus Rent, PO Box 330, Vashon, 98070, or donate online at ifchvashon.org/donate-2, clearly indicating the amount should go to “Virus Rent.”
