Personal Finance
$15 Million In Hillsborough Coronavirus Aid Dispersed In 3 Days
The $15 million Hillsborough County set aside to help residents impacted by the coronavirus shutdowns was given out in three days.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — The $15 million Hillsborough County set aside to help residents impacted by the coronavirus shutdowns with rent and utilities has been given out.
The county announced Wednesday on its Facebook page that it is no longer accepting applications for its Rapid Response Recovery program.
The county opened its call center for applicants Monday morning for residents of unincorporated Hillsborough County, Temple Terrace, Plant City and Tampa, and dispersed the funding within three days.
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"Due to the limit in current funding, Hillsborough County’s Rapid Response Recovery (R3) program has reached its capacity for financial assistance," the county announced. "We are no longer accepting online applications or over-the-phone appointments at this time."
The county noted that residents who were pre-screened or who successfully submitted online applications before the cut-off will be contacted by an eligibility specialist.
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Hillsborough County received $256 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and allocated $15 million of it to the Social Services Department to help families impacted by the coronavirus.
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The funding was intended to help residents who were laid off or had reduced work hours pay utility bills, rent and mortgage payments. The county accepted 3,000 online and phone applications before cutting off submissions.
The $15 million is over and above the $8 million annually in services that the county provides through it Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Emergency Home Energy Assistance Program, Community Services Block Grant, and Rental/Mortgage Assistance programs.
The Facebook page announcement was met with a flurry of comments from disappointed residents who attempted to apply for help and were unable to reach anyone at the call center or submit an online application.
"Why am I not surprised?" asked Carrie Henry of Tampa.
An independent stylist at Salon Lofts in Tampa, Henry has been out of work since the county closed all nonessential businesses on April 6. Not only was she unable to get through to the call center to apply for Rapid Response Recovery funds, she's been unable to complete her unemployment compensation application, was unable to obtain a Florida Payroll Protection Program loan and hasn't even received her federal stimulus check.
Carrie Rutter, a single mother of a toddler in Plant City, was equally unsuccessful getting funding help from the county.
She said she would like to know how the $15 million in funding was allocated.
"We deserve transparency or better reporting/communication," she said. "The news of this is going to cause an uproar. You have so many individuals being affected financially that are still waiting on unemployment to be processed, with no income coming in and family to take care of."
She also has questions about how the county plans to use the rest of the $256 million in federal CARES funding it received.
"This 15 million is only 17 percent," she said.
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