We give people money.
They do the rest.
Held provides guaranteed income directly to people in need, with no applications, no conditions, and no one telling families what to spend it on. Just cash, when it matters most.
In Greensboro, Held works alongside local partners to identify homeless households just on the verge of housing but needing a little extra help. We then put the money for a place directly in their hands. Each referred participant receives $3,000 upfront for things like deposit and first month's rent, then $750 every month for a year. The money is given unconditionally — just because they need it, and no one looking over their shoulder.
Partners refer
Local organizations identify households who just need a boost to sign a lease.
Money lands
$3,000 upfront for deposit and first month, then $750 a month for a year.
No strings
How the money is spent is theirs to decide. We never look over their shoulder.
We check in
We stay in touch and connect people to resource agencies based on their needs.
In Greensboro, Held works directly with people navigating housing instability. Across the state, we help other organizations put money in their participants' hands.
Duke Health
Duke Health administers a 250-person study of families on Medicaid. Held makes sure those families receive the weekly direct cash that's part of the study.
United Way of Forsyth County
United Way funds a monthly stipend for families in Winston-Salem to catch up on bills and stay ahead on rent. Held moves the money directly to participants.
City of Raleigh
Raleigh's Tenant-Based Rental Assistance program runs through Held. The city funds it, we administer it, and participants move from the streets to a place of their own.
Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance
LNA connects the Charlotte residents they serve to direct cash assistance. Held handles the monthly payments.
Lillian didn't believe it at first.
After her retail hours were cut, Lillian Barrett was evicted in the fall of 2023, a week after her birthday. She and her teenage daughter, Leah, lived in their car for seven months before the county placed Leah in foster care and Lillian moved in with her sister. Then a local housing advocate told her about Held. Skeptical but out of options — "Who's just going to give out money like that?" she remembers thinking — she went to an orientation anyway, and within a week she'd covered a deposit and first month's rent and signed a lease of her own.
This past spring, Leah, now 16, moved back in, and their relationship is stronger than it's been in years. Held never once asked how she spent the money.