The COVID-19 pandemic is a terrible blow to the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, California, the United States, and the world.
However, in an unexpected twist, the pandemic also is helping Lift To Rise, a Palm Desert-area collective action partnership, convince organizations, politicians, and other agenda setters to realize that real change is possible when they work together.
"I think the silver lining of COVID is that it really has brought a lot of us together," Lift To Rise President and CEO Heather Vaikona recently told Desert Magazine.
The pandemic has helped galvanize communities and organizations in the Coachella Valley to address the problems faced by its most vulnerable residents, problems that the pandemic has propelled to unprecedented heights.
"We're at a moment where folks are really recognizing the importance of being able to keep our friends and neighbors housed -- and also the importance of being aligned in our policies and investments -- so that the valley becomes a more fair and equitable place for everyone, especially our vulnerable co-workers," Vaikona said.
Lift To Rise formed less than three years ago as an effort by community-based organizations, including FIND Food Bank, United Way of the Desert, the Regional Access Project Foundation, and the Desert Healthcare District. Those organizations came together to combine their efforts, particularly where their services overlapped.
"Building toward a more inclusive, equitable future for all requires working together in unprecedented ways," Lift To Rise's website says. "Lift To Rise is borne from a deep sense of urgency and an unfettered commitment to the belief that the Coachella Valley is a place where the sun rises for everyone."
Lift To Rise also brings genuine vision to the table, Kat Taylor, chair and co-founder of Beneficial State Bank and TomKat Ranch owner and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation co-founder, said.
"Bold imagination is the distinctive marker of Lift To Rise's work," Taylor said. "These young folks are committed to working toward the highest horizon of their own belief that radical transformation is possible. A belief that things can change. This is what grounds and drives them. After all, imagination always precedes accomplishment."
One focus for Lift To Rise is homelessness, a problem both recognized and misunderstood.
"There is a lot of attention paid to homelessness, but there also is a lot of not recognizing that the lack of affordable housing is the root cause of homelessness," Vaikona said.
From its earliest days, Lift To Rise has worked to "establish a common understanding" about that root cause and build political will to collectively address homelessness and other challenges in the Coachella Valley, Vaikona said.
"The Coachella Valley is incredibly interdependent," she said.
That interdependence requires the community problems be resolved together, and the pandemic brought that into sharper focus.
"The biggest challenge we face now -- and before COVID -- is the vast number of people facing housing insecurity in our region, all while incomes are low and declining," Vaikona said. "Incomes are declining, and people don't make enough money to begin with."
Two out of three Coachella Valley residents were already "housing cost burdened" before the pandemic, Vaikona said.
"The lack of housing that people can afford is one of two central drivers driving instability," she said. "Rents are too high, and wages are too low."
The pandemic and its challenges required more hands-on deck. To meet that need, Lift To Rise received support from organizations, including the Desert Healthcare District and the Regional Access Project Foundation, which provided resources to increase Lift To Rise's staff from 10 to 25.
That staff is "all young, local folks" from the Coachella Valley area, who very often "work from earlier than sun-up to after sundown," Vaikona said.
"Most of them are recent college graduates," she said. "For a lot of them, this is their very first job. What they've been doing is the very hard work of 'how do you needle the thread' of getting relief to residents."
Part of the team's job is to figure out how to disburse federal, state, local, philanthropic, and other contributions.
Riverside County made the third largest allocation of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act funding per capita nationwide, going a long way toward Lift To Rise's pandemic-era work.
"And they have worked with us to adjust the eligibility guidelines, allowing us and residents to inform the eligibility guidelines," Vaikona said.
Following funding guidelines is important in maintaining funding requirements and getting the funds disbursed.
"The work that we're doing every day is figuring out how to disburse those funds, to allocate them in ways that work for our residents, to get it out to people as soon as possible," Vaikona said.
In June, Lift To Rise used more than $2 million in seed money to launch a rental assistance fund for Coachella Valley families suffering shelter insecurity due to the pandemic.
The fund is keeping people in the Valley housed.
"I am incredibly impressed with the work Lift To Rise has been able to do with the rental assistance fund Riverside County allocated to address COVID-19 related rental burden," Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said. "Moreover, the dedication and commitment their young staff has shown is unmatched. Not only have they provided rental assistance, but they have worked to ease residents’ concerns and link them to other services to help in these difficult and uncertain times."
Decisions are based on talking directly to those most affected by the pandemic, residents, and their landlords "and then back to us to make sure we can meet the guidelines and disburse as soon as we can," Vaikona said.
"There isn't a day where I don't end up crying, listening to these folks and the difficulties that they are facing and what it means to be housing insecure," she said.
There also is plenty of reason for pride in Lift To Rise's work of daily "trying to meet the urgency of the moment," Vaikona said.
"What I feel incredibly proud of is that while this has been an incredibly tough year for everyone, our team has really been able to step up to that moment and problem-solve our way forward," she continued.
While some days feel "really heavy," Lift To Rise has been up to the challenge with "hope and resilience," Vaikon said.
"We've been able to bring so many support organizations together, resources quickly and consistently, across our ecosystem," she said.
And all of that is necessary in a watershed moment that is the pandemic.
"I think for the rest of our lives, we're going to look back on this work and recognize that in this time of great uncertainty -- while we're all feeling scared, while we're all feeling stressed out -- that we were united enough to do the work of removing harm from peoples' lives and taking people from a place to harm to a place of safety," Vaikona said. "This is what happens when you're able to keep someone housed. Really, this work is a lot less about us and a lot more about how people have been able to work in this place and the way that folks have bonded together."
And that work must continue.
"I know that we're all scared about what might happen next, Vaikona said. "But I think we have learned so much in the last six months, that when we put out heads and effort together, we can help create something beautiful."
