Western Egyptian offers crisis-based services to residents of Monroe, Perry, and Randolph Counties through the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program. Some of the services available include rental assistance, utility assistance and other types of assistance that help meet the basic needs of low-income people.

What is CSBG?

The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program is administered through the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and was designed to provide a range of services to assist low-income people whose income is within 125 percent of the poverty threshold.  With the passage of the CARES Act as a result of Covid-19, the CSBG federal poverty level has been increased from 125% to 200% through 12/31/2021. Provision has also been made for CSBG services to be provided to citizens above these income levels who are victims of natural or man-made disasters which cause swift and temporary poverty.

Who is Eligible?

In addition to meeting the income guidelines, customers under the CSBG program are required to have experienced a recent and provable crisis. Examples of qualifying crisis include: (1) loss of employment or loss of substantial work hours; (2) current medical crisis; (3) unexpected car or household expense; or (4) other condition which constitutes a hardship comparable to the aforementioned examples. The customer must be able to provide supporting documentation of the crisis.

To find out if you qualify for assistance, please contact your local Outreach Office.

Our work programs are established to meet the needs of our community’s residents. In order to identify those needs, we ask clients, community stakeholders and Western Egyptian staff to complete the below Needs Assessment survey and return to our Central Office.