Jobs and the cars you need to get to them.

If you live in the city of Baltimore, you may have noticed that getting to work can be a very time-consuming, somewhat uncertain process. Commuting by bus can take a while, particularly if you have change lines, and reliability can also be problem. The Governor says he has a plan to make your life better. We’ll see how that works out.

Baltimore Rising, as you know, is all about jobs, jobs for the city’s unemployed and under-employed. The latter are people who are working, but are making less than a living wage, less than they need to take care of themselves and their families. The reality is that a great many of our people who are living below the poverty level – either because they are unemployed or underemployed – would be working and making decent income if only they had the transportation they need to get to jobs that are across the city from where they live or in the suburbs.

While we have no specific statistics to share with you, it is our understanding that there are job openings in the suburbs – perhaps thousands of them – for which Baltimore’s un- and under-employed residents would be qualified. Unfortunately, without a car, commuting to the suburbs can be next to impossible. There is some public transportation, notably light rail and trains, but getting to job locations from stops on those lines is problematic. And then there are whole job categories, like construction, where the workplace location can be changing from time to time, even day to day.

Well, for those of you out there who are unemployed or under-employed, but could be working and making a decent income if only you had a car to get to work, Baltimore Rising may be able to help you get one. Not an old used one with little or no warranty for which you’re obviously overpaying and can’t afford to fix when it breaks down. And no, we’re not talking some ride sharing gimmick that’s too expensive to use for commuting. We’re talking about helping you purchase a small, modest, but brand new car under full warranty with all the latest technology and safety features.

Sure, we understand that your credit may be less than perfect, that you may be currently unemployed and might not have the money to make a down payment. We get it and have already talked to car dealers about how we can help you qualify for an affordable new car loan. No promises, but we may be able to help you. Our service is free and whatever information you share with us will be kept in strict confidence, to be shared only with a car dealer with your prior permission.

How does are Cars-For-Jobs program work? Well…

• You must have lived in Baltimore for at least 1 year. Why? Because we’re not here to help people moving to the city just to take advantage of our programs.

• You must be currently unemployed or employed, but making less than federal poverty level (FPL) for your family situation. It’s your total family income that counts. The FPL, for example, for a single person is $11,770. For a family of 4, it’s $24,250. Those are gross annual income numbers. Use this link to see the FPLs for different family sizes.

• You need to have a full-time job waiting for you that your new employer will confirm, contingent upon your having a car or other transportation to get to it – a job that’s at least 5 miles from where you live in the city.

• The estimated take-home pay from your new full-time job must be enough to afford the car payment which will be less than $200/month.

• You have to be willing to allow your employer to make your car payment for you directly as a deduction from your net check.

• We’re going to need to know how much you’ll be paid in your new job and the nature of the work you’ll be doing.

There are other details, but those are the highlights. Your monthly payments – for a brand new car you’ll be buying, not leasing – will be less, possibly well less than $200.

Interested? All you need to do to start the process is fill out the form below and email it to us. We’ll be back to you in no more than 5 business days. We’ll do whatever we can to help you get the car you need to take the job you’ve worked so hard to find.

Thank you and here’s the form you should fill out if you would like to participate in our new Cars-For-Jobs program.

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