| Big Radio News |
Janesville nonprofit group ECHO is looking for a few people who’ve experienced homelessness to join its board of directors as the agency seeks to dive deeper into its rental housing rehab and landlord program.
ECHO Director Jessica Locher says the agency seeks three or four new board members who are homeless or have been homeless in the past.
For years, ECHO has been a major provider of housing vouchers through its “rapid re-housing” program. Locher says ECHO wants to be more in control of its own program, including the ECHO’s work rehabbing houses and then becoming those homes’ landlord.
Locher says to do that, ECHO must earn federal status as a community housing development organization. She says that would be a conduit for more grant funding for ECHO’s housing programs. One requirement for the designation: A nonprofit must show they have multiple board members who have experienced homelessness.
Locher says in the past, ECHO has tried to have one standing board member who is homeless. She says having three or four people on ECHO’s board who’ve experienced the struggles of being unhoused could help ECHO learn how to better serve the homeless — especially at a time when more people are feeling the pinch of housing costs and inflation to food costs.
ECHO, like many other nonprofits, is navigating uncertainty amid possible federal grant cuts and freezes being enacted by President Trump’s administration. That includes cuts that could impact low-income housing programs that fuel local initiatives like ECHO’s housing vouchers.
ECHO receives about $700,000 a year in local, state and federal funds. Locher says about $400,000 of that is typically earmarked for ECHO’s housing voucher program.
Locher says ECHO hopes to have the new board members sworn in by late summer. People who want to apply the special board seats can pick up a form at ECHO’s office at 65 South High Street or contact Locher directly at ECHO.
