Today's Question:
As we move past the COVID-19 Pandemic, what are some immediate solutions City Council can work on to provide relief to those impacted by the pandemic?
While we are not quite past the global pandemic, as the Delta variant shows, there are some things that the City Council can support to help Camasonians impacted by COVID-19. The CIty Council should educate and assist Camasonians to get available federal, state or local COVID-19 response funding such as unemployment assistance, mortgage assistance, rental assistance and small business loan relief.
The City Council should also support additional funds being made available to help businesses keep hard working employees on payroll, help meet various business expenses and enhance loan programs to create needed stability for businesses emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our elected officials in Camas should also support protecting citizen homeowners who are struggling to make ends meet and still pay their mortgage.
Homeowners should be afforded access to forbearance options for as long as reasonably necessary to avoid foreclosures that both negatively impact citizen creditworthiness, but also negatively impacts our community and economic vitality. To the extent Camas can also provide financial assistance to citizens regarding all these programs, we should do so.
That said, any loans or assistance should be repaid on varying scales and schedules - on a case by case basis. Camasonians don’t want a handout. They need our help, and are responsible enough to repay what help is given at the appropriate time. Let’s do our part as CIty Council to make that help available.
Thanks for the question. If you have a question, just send me a note at leslieforcamas@gmail.com.
- Leslie