$472 million in CARES Act funding is being used to help Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
“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 in HUD’s press release. “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.”
The HUD press release gives a number of examples of ways this funding will help households. These include providing cleaning supplies, relocating households for health reasons, and funding additional costs to vendors who provide supportive services.
A list of funding amounts to each housing authority can be found here.
These funds will also be used to indirectly help HCV residents. Some of these funding methods include costs to retain or increase HCV landlord participation, and costs to provide childcare for children of PHA staff that would have otherwise not incurred during the pandemic.
This funding includes assistance for Mainstream Housing Choice Voucher participants as well, which is an offshoot of the standard HCV program for non-elderly renters with disabilities. Common areas of Section 8 Project-Based Voucher properties will also receive cleaning supplies and services through these funds.
Several HCV households are experiencing many difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic, but actions like this help lessen the blow for a lot of renters.
