Like Throwing Starfish into the Sea

June 16, 2026

Dear friends,

In November, we took on Tarrant County’s Human Services rent and utility assistance program. The goal for the County is simple: to get as much rent and utility assistance as possible in the hands of families that are at risk of eviction.

In many ways, we’ve achieved extraordinary success. Our program operates at an efficiency rate of $0.89 of every dollar in direct assistance, compared to the County’s history of $0.23 of every dollar. Once a family is approved, the check is processed within about eight days. Every person receives individualized referral information.

The need for assistance is enormous. Every three weeks we open the application portal. Last time we opened the portal, 434 applications came in within 21 minutes. All those applications need to be processed in time to prevent eviction. When they are at risk of losing their homes, people are scared. Scared people get angry. They pour their anger out on any person who doesn’t give them the answers they want. I don’t blame them.

On average, 534 households are evicted each week in Tarrant County, and each is an average of two months behind in rent. We’d need $1,335,000 per week to prevent all those families from being evicted. As I told elected officials this week, we won’t be able to grow the program enough to keep all those families in their homes. While we’d gladly spend more money on assistance, that’s not the answer.

The real answer? The answer that would solve most of the eviction crisis? Employment. Tens of thousands of Tarrant County jobs go unfilled because there aren’t workers with the right credentials or transportation or child care. We need innovative solutions to solve the workforce crisis so that we can stop having an eviction rate five times the national average.

Center for Transforming Lives partnered this past week with CLC, Inc. on a small pilot, combining forklift training with free childcare, transportation assistance, and job placement. Three mothers and one dad wrap up their training on Monday, graduating with a certificate that allows them to get hired into a full-time job with benefits. Then they’ll be placed into a high-demand job. It’s a start.

Our rent and utility assistance program is vital, but it is throwing starfish back into the sea, one at a time. When we invest funds into vocational training designed with families with children in mind, we’re stopping those starfish from becoming stranded in the first place.

Thank you for all your support of mothers and their children. They need you.

Carol