United Way of the Bay Area Blog
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Check out our new SparkPoint video (3 minutes long)!
Created by United Way of the Bay Area, SparkPoint Centers are financial education centers that help individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet. We help our clients address immediate financial crises, get them back on their feet, and build financially secure futures.
Learn more at www.sparkpointcenters.org.
The results are in, and United Way’s Earn It! Keep It! Save It! free tax preparation service for low-income residents helped bring in $63.8 million in refunds to our community. That’s money that will get spent locally, generating jobs, sales, and tax revenue for government services.
This news couldn’t come at a better time – with budget cuts on the federal, state, and local levels hitting our communities hard, it’s critical that we bring tax dollars back to local residents.
Included in the $63.8 million was about $20 million in Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC), a credit given to low-wage workers. The EITC is often not claimed because people do not know about it, making free, reliable tax preparation all the more important for those struggling to get by.
According to Vanessa Muniz, Regional Director of Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, the EITC can be as high as about $6,000 or 10% of a household’s income in one lump sum. “It can mean being able to buy children clothes and school supplies, fixing a car for work, or having the money needed to pay rent,” she said.
Since its inception, Earn It! Keep It! Save It! has brought nearly $275 million in refunds, including almost $99 million in EITC credits, back to low-income residents in the Bay Area. “Providing the service for free is key,” said Vanessa. “We have no bottom line interest and just want to ensure that people get all the refund they are entitled to.”
To learn more about Earn It! Keep It! Save It! go to www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org.
Bay Area food banks and emergency shelters rely on the federal Emergency Food and Shelter (EFSP) funds to serve millions of meals and provide shelter to thousands of who are in dire need. But their funding is under threat.
Congress is moving quickly to pass the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which will provide funding for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP). Unfortunately, as passed by the full House Appropriations Committee recently, the bill would only fund EFSP at $120 million in FY2012. That is nearly a 50% reduction in funding needed to sustain shelters and food banks in the Bay Area.
EFSP is a critical program to the San Francisco Bay Area, providing people in need with necessary food, lodging, utility assistance, and rent/mortgage help for one month. Bay Area food banks and emergency shelters rely on $3.4 million of federal Emergency Food and Shelter (EFSP) funds each year to serve three million meals and provide shelter to thousands in dire need. Almost 400,000 unduplicated Bay Area individuals receive services from EFSP funded programs annually.
Join United Way in calling Congress to fund the program at $200 million, the same level provided in FY2010 & FY2009.
The vote is TODAY, so take action!
Taking action is easy – click here to find your Representative and follow the script provided.
Thanks for standing for thousands of children and families in need!
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