HUD announced the allocation of $380 million in supplemental administrative fee funding to all Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). 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 Housing Choice Voucher (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); and
- 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.).
HUD also allocated an additional $1 billion through its Community Development Block Grant. The allocation formula uses variables focusing on public health needs, risk of transmission of coronavirus, rate of coronavirus cases and economic disruption. The formula uses data on low-income elderly and poor children to target places with higher public health risk while also using recent unemployment insurance claims data to provide for states hardest hit, at the time of the allocation, by unemployment. All of the factors are adjusted so that places with higher than the national average in COVID-19 cases receive a slightly higher share of funding.
