WEST VIRGINIA (WOAY) – U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Joe DeFelice announced today the allocation of $1.6 million in supplemental administrative fee funding to Public Housing Authorities (PHA) in West Virginia, including Moving to Work (MTW) PHAs.
The two months of additional funding may be used for traditional administrative fees as well as for new costs related to keeping employees and HUD-assisted families safe. The funding, made available by the CARES Act legislation President Trump signed into law on March 27, 2020, will be awarded to PHAs across the state.
“With this latest funding allocation in West Virginia, more than $4 million is now going to Public Housing Authorities to protect residents and employees against the spread of COVID-19,” said DeFelice. “We are moving quickly to make it available.”
The funding is being awarded through HUD’s Mainstream Program, which is a part of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. It provides tenant-based vouchers to households that include a non-elderly person with a disability and serves over 2.4 million families.
The new eligible coronavirus-related activities include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Procuring cleaning supplies and/or services to maintain safe and sanitary HCV units, including common areas of PHA-owned Project Based Voucher (PBV) projects.
- Relocation of participating families to health units or other designated units for testing, hospitalization, or quarantine, or transportation to these locations to limit the exposure that could be caused by using mass transportation.
- Additional costs to supportive services vendors incurred due to coronavirus.
- Costs to retain or increase owner participation in the HCV Program, such as incentive or retention costs (e.g. the PHA offers owner an incentive payment to participate in recognition of added difficulties of making units available for HCV families to rent while stay-at-home orders or social distancing practices are in effect).
- Costs for providing childcare for the children of PHA staff that would not have otherwise been incurred (e.g. children are at home due to school closings, PHA staff are working outside of regular work schedules, etc.).
A list of allocations can be found here.
After President Trump signed the CARES Act into law, HUD acted immediately to allocate its first wave of funding, over $3 billion to assist communities and non-profits, help protect the homeless and Americans with compromised immune systems, and assist Tribal communities in their COVID-19 response efforts. Last week, HUD announced an additional $685 million for PHAs to prepare for, prevent, and respond to a coronavirus outbreak for the public housing program.
For more information on HUD’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and the actions the Department has taken, please visit Hud.gov/coronavirus. Public Housing Authorities across the nation have jumped into action to help assist their tenants and their communities during this unprecedented time. Read more about their stories featured in HUD’s Neighbors Helping Neighbors campaign, here.
