By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Yachats Community Presbyterian Church has exhausted all of the money contributed to help out-of-work residents and Wednesday appealed for additional donations.
In the past six weeks the church has given $74,300 to Yachats workers who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting business closures.
On Wednesday it ran through the last $5,100 it had to disburse — $100 in cash to local residents who could show they were out of a job and not receiving state unemployment benefits. Fifty-four people asked for help, said Pastor Bob Barrett, and three people were turned away.
“I can’t tell you how difficult it was to turn away three people who desperately needed help,” Barrett said in a Facebook post.
The church started handing out cash – first $100, then $200, later $300 and then back to $100 more recently – on March 13 as restaurants began to close and lay off workers. The money was intended to tide people over until they could sign up for and receive unemployment benefits.
But problems with the Oregon Employment Department’s old computer system have slowed help to some. Barrett said other workers seeking help Wednesday needed to provide more information to the state or have been told they didn’t qualify for benefits.
Barrett now worries that Yachats residents or people connected to the community may be running out of the ability to continue to donate.
“I don’t know how many times we can go to the well,” he said. “But we’ll see.”
In addition to the nearly $75,000 donated to the displaced worker fund, the church has also received $80,000 to distribute to closed Yachats businesses struggling to pay ongoing bills.
On Tuesday the church distributed another round of checks to nine Yachats businesses, Barrett said, mostly to help with rent and utilities due this month. It has given nearly $32,000 to 20 businesses, he said.
Barrett said most businesses getting the help are shops owned by 1-2 people who did not quality or apply for federal loan programs or were unable to take on additional debt. Next month the church committee overseeing the loans may expand grants to business expenses beyond just rent and utilities, Barrett said.
“Larger businesses seem to have been covered, the businesses with a good number of employees have gotten some help … the Mom and Pops have been left to fend for themselves,” he said.
The church has also distributed food to 500 people in the last five weeks, Barrett said. The community food pantry is open 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the church.
But the most pressing need, for now, Barrett said is helping for displaced workers not receiving state unemployment. The church needs about $5,000 a week to do that.
“If the funds are there next Wednesday we’ll disburse them,” he said.
“Some of you have told me to let you know what we need. So here goes,” Barrett said on Facebook. “If you haven’t yet given and you can, we need your help. If you’ve given and you can give again, we need your help. The need continues. We are making a difference.”
Donations can be made by checks payable to the church with “Displaced Worker Fund” and dropped off at the church during food bank hours, or mailed to YCPC, PO Box 285, Yachats, OR 97498. Donations are also accepted online through the church’s website.
More grim jobless numbers Thursday
And, the Oregon Employment Department’s weekly release of new jobless claims for the week ending May 2 did little to reassure the fallout from the pandemic is slowing.
Another 411 Lincoln County workers filed new claims last week, bringing the seven-week total to 4,065. Lincoln County, because of its reliance on tourism, has had the greatest percentage of its workforce affected by coronavirus restrictions than any other Oregon county.
Across Oregon, there almost 20,000 new claims for the week ending May 2, bringing the state’s seven-week total to 382,000.
Oregon’s backlog of unemployment claims backlog stands at 62,000, according to the employment department. While the state says 83 percent of claims filed since March 15 have been handled, about 6,000 from March remain unprocessed, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. The state says it is prioritizing those, which have left workers without their benefits for weeks.
The employment department said it is working to improve communication but said it is hamstrung by its aging computer systems and by the complexity of many claims. The department said it now has 635 workers processing claims, up from a little more than 100 at the start of the outbreak.
Late last month Oregon began processing claims for self-employed workers and contractors. The employment department said Thursday it has now processed 10,000 of those claims.
