Emergency cash and food help

If you have very low income, you might face an emergency that requires financial help right away. For example, you might need help making the next month’s rent or paying your utility bill after losing a job. If this happens to you, you can apply to DSHS to find out if you’re eligible for one of their emergency cash programs. You could be eligible for an emergency cash program even if you already get public benefits. 

If you get Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, you might be eligible to get extra emergency money under either the Additional Requirements (AR) or Diversion Cash Assistance (DCA) programs. If you get TANF, you can generally get up to $750 in AR one time a year. DSHS will pay the money directly to the third party you owe, for example the landlord or the utility company. 

If you qualify to get TANF, you can get up to $1,250 in DCA once a year instead of getting TANF. But don’t apply for DCA if you think you may have to apply for TANF in the next year. If you end up getting TANF, you’ll have to pay back part of the DCA. You’ll get a lot more TANF in a year than you would a one-time DCA payment. 

Example: Your family of 3 chose to get $1,250 in DCA. Nine months later, you apply for TANF. You must repay $312. DSHS will collect this $312 by lowering your monthly TANF amount by 5% until the $312 is paid back. If you’d chosen to get TANF instead, you could have gotten $654 a month for the entire year, for a total of $7,848.

Talk to a DSHS caseworker about which option makes more sense for you. 

If you don’t qualify to get TANF, for example because you didn’t take part in the WorkFirst program, you may still be eligible for help for one month a year through the CEAP program.