CARES Act provides additional funding to public housing authorities

MADISON– On Tuesday morning, Aug. 11, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced $472 million nationally in CARES Act funding to help low-income families during the coronavirus pandemic, including $3.8 million to 52 public housing authorities (PHAs) throughout Wisconsin. This funding can be used by public housing authorities to help families assisted by Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) and Mainstream vouchers prevent, prepare for and respond to the coronavirus. See the local impact of the housing assistance funding made available.
“This funding will provide additional resources to public housing authorities to make sure people have a decent, safe, and affordable place to call home,” said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. “HUD continues to work with our public housing authorities to protect American families from this invisible enemy, including vulnerable residents in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.”
“These new funds are important and will go a long way to help low-income residents secure and retain affordable housing during this unprecedented time,” said Hunter Kurtz, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
“Public housing authorities have a vital role to play as we continue our COVID‑19 recovery efforts,” said Joseph P. Galvan, HUD Midwest Regional Administrator. “We will continue working diligently to overcome this as expeditiously as possible.”
The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV) includes the Mainstream Program that provides tenant-based vouchers serving low-income households.
The 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.).

For more information on HUD’s response to the novel coronavirus pandemic and the actions the Department has taken, please visit http://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.