Rental Assistance Helped Dolores Handle Emergency Dental Bills

Food is a human right, as is access to housing and healthcare, including dental healthcare. Where do you turn when you need to choose which of the three you can afford? For Dolores, a Ballard Food Bank visitor, this was her reality.

Last month, Dolores was facing severe pains and needed emergency dental care which left her in a tight spot and unable to pay for rent. Stuck with an unaffordable but necessary procedure, community members led her to our emergency financial assistance.

Senior Manager of Community Advocacy and Outreach, Nathaniel Lyon, helps a guest with an application in the Community Resource Hub.

Another tenant in her building shared with her assistant building manager that Ballard Food Bank provides money for emergency rental assistance. This luckily timed word-of-mouth reached Dolores, and she learned that Ballard Food Bank offers more than just food!

Dolores shared that the application process was easy and smooth! With the help of our Resource Hub, Dolores could stay in her home AND get the proper care she needed to feel better.

Thanks to our caring community of supporters, we are able to bring food, hope, and care to our neighbors like Dolores.

Dolores had previously visited the food bank after her husband passed away in 2019 but was only familiar with our free grocery market. Now, she's learned more about and utilized the services available in our Community Resource Hub that help keep our neighbors healthy and housed.

No one should have to decide between paying for dental care or rent. Thankfully, Dolores applied for financial assistance and her rent was paid on the first of the month.

"The dental quote I was provided was not affordable. So based on word-of-mouth that the Ballard Food Bank would pay rent was a huge relief. That done, I was able to use the money I saved when the Ballard Food Bank paid my rent to pay for my dental bill. A huge relief, financially and pain-wise!"