For the past 110 years, Chattanooga-area residents in financial need have found help from readers of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
James Peeples was one of those people in the spring. He said in a telephone interview that he was in danger of losing his downtown Chattanooga apartment when he called the United Way of Greater Chattanooga’s 211 line.
Depending on the circumstances, United Way draws up to $1,500 from the newspaper’s Ochs Community Fund to help a given client. Helping Peeples required exactly $37.
“I’m shocked every day at how little it can take to change a household,” said Brittany Lockwood, a program manager at United Way of Greater Chattanooga. “It takes you aback how little it really takes to make that kind of difference.”
Peeples recalled moving into his apartment in early 2018 — but not from another apartment.
“I was homeless for a year before I moved in,” he said.
(READ MORE: Each day is a new day to help somebody, longtime United Way employee says)
So when it looked in the spring like he might lose his place, he feared the worst.
“All I could think about was being homeless again,” Peeples said. “I got an eviction notice on my door. I was terrified. Anytime it gets close to the first of a month and I don’t have the (rent) money, I start worrying.
“The worry,” he said, “is the hard part for me.”
Peeples said he’d been unemployed for seven months, during which time he’d paid his rent with the help of friends. He was “frantic,” he said, when he finally called United Way looking for help.
He said that between the United Way and his building manager, he got his rent paid and kept his apartment.
“His sister had been helping him pay his rent, but she’d lost her job,” United Way’s Lockwood said. “It was literally $37 to give James the peace of mind he needed.”
Peeples said he feels especially good about the future, given that he landed a restaurant job in mid-November.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty cool place,” he said. “I’m very happy after a long time. And it’s getting close to Christmas.”
The Times Free Press Ochs Community Fund bears the name of Adolph Ochs, who launched the fund in 1914 while he was publisher of The Daily Times in Chattanooga. The fund receives donations from Times Free Press readers, and the money is administered and distributed to individuals and families in need by the United Way of Greater Chattanooga and partner agencies.
Recipients must be working or on a fixed income and be able to demonstrate ongoing stability and self-sufficiency after receiving Ochs Community Fund grants. The fund took in $37,496 last year.
Contact Bob Gary at bgary@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731.
Ochs Community Fund
To donate to the Ochs Community Fund, formerly called Neediest Cases, please visit timesfreepress.com/ochs-fund.