Earned Income Tax Credit: Jeff and Rita Helping Families Save Money

Jeff has been working to provide free tax preparation for the past seven years, the past four of which have been spent at CASH Oregon’s Lloyd Center free tax preparation center as a site coordinator. Nearly all the people that visit the site qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit and United Way of the Columbia-Willamette provides funds to help those clients receive the credit.

“Most of the people we help here are either surprised or delighted that they’re receiving a considerable refund or they’re counting on that money to help pay family bills,” Jeff said. “The way I see it, my job has two goals, first to make sure our clients are following all the tax laws to keep them out of trouble with the IRS and second to make sure they pay out as little as possible as allowed by tax law to help them better support their families.”

Rob Justus, Executive Director of CASH Oregon commends Jeff’s tireless efforts to save low income families money and ensure their taxes are filed correctly. “Jeff created the bar that all our tax sites adhere to for quality control,” said Rob. “Jeff developed a training course for all our tax volunteers on quality control and he makes sure we score 100% in site IRS audits meaning that all the tax returns we do are accurate.”

Rita is one of the volunteers who works three days a week to help prepare taxes for lower income individuals and families. “I enjoy being able to help people so much that I often stay so long into the evening they have to kick me out!” Rita said. “My mother used to volunteer doing tax preparation so last year I decided I wanted to help too and took the four 8 hour classes needed to become a certified tax preparer and I just love it.”

This tax season, the CASH Oregon site in Lloyd Center Mall is on track to file 3,000 returns for free, which would set a record for this location. They are expecting to file 16,000 free tax returns at all the 53 CASH Oregon tax sites combined thanks to over 300 volunteer tax preparers like Rita.

Tax Event Saves Low-Income Taxpayers Money

As part of United Way's funding of financial education services at the Community Housing Resource Center (CHRC) in Clark County, the center partnered with US Bank and the IRS last month to prepare 20 tax returns during the 2011 Homeless Connect event organized by the Council for the Homeless. Many individual tax returns were prepared placing $7,000 in Earned Income Tax funds into the hands of homeless low-income working taxpayers and a total of $15,000 in tax refunds were obtained by homeless participants at the event. Several people were also able to open direct deposit accounts with the Bank and staff at CHRC was able to connect people with community financial education and counseling resources that are available at the Center.

The "Hard Times Generation," a Personal Reflection

Last night’s 60 Minutes story on homeless children entitled “the hard times generation” seen here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038927.shtml struck a cord for our staff at United Way.

What these children are dealing with, hunger, poverty, lack of housing are issues that United Way is working hard to address in our local community through the Community Relief Fund. The fund provides emergency food, rent and utilities assistance to help children like those profiled in this story stay in safe homes, with the lights and heat on and food on the table.

Maria Rubio, United Way’s Diversity and Inclusion Director had the following personal emotions when she saw the story:

What makes this interesting for me is that the middle class is slowly disappearing. Unfortunately, millions of people grew up and/or have been living like this for generations because of similar circumstances (this idea of “the working poor”) like having to decide if they buy groceries or pay the light bill. Their children’s education suffers because the kids cannot concentrate in school and have to carry the burden of feeling responsible for their family’s situation. Eventually this leads to bad grades, absenteeism, and dropping out.

It’s really sad that these kids are learning what it’s like to live in poverty. I know that for me, growing up in a migrant farm worker family moving from town to town to harvest crops and living in labor camps, it didn’t seem as bad because I was with my 10 siblings and 2 parents. We learned to work hard from a very young age (5yrs old - before the child labor laws precluding children under 12 from being in the fields working). Like the boy in the video, I quit school during my senior year to work with my brother to help pay for the rent in Hillsboro after the labor camp closed for the winter. It’s hard to imagine that 40 years later, children from previously middle-class families are repeating this cycle.

I loved what the 10-year-old girl in the video said that because of going through this experience, she will understand what it’s like when she gets out of this situation and encounters others going through it. It’s a hard lesson, but one that will help her in the future.

It's frusterating to think how easily and in such great numbers people are being evicted and literally put out on the street. These families are the working poor, making more than $20,000 a year which is not enough to provide for a family of four but is above the federal poverty threshold for many government services so they’re on their own, struggling. If we could keep more people in their homes, children would maintain their self-esteem and do much better in school.

This story may have been based in Florida but our local community is dealing with the exact same problems. I firmly believe the work that United Way of the Columbia-Willamette does here in the Portland metro area can help solve these problems. Our community needs emergency funds to help people stay in their homes and pay their utilities and we’re working to do that through our Community Relief Fund. But we also need ongoing support that goes beyond emergency needs like mentoring, referrals, and funds for supportive programs, all things United Way provides for the community. 

Help us make a difference for our local families struggling, donate to United Way’s Community Relief Fund today.

Thank you,
Maria Rubio
Director, Diversity and Inclusion
United Way of the Columbia-Willamette