$1.2 Million Awarded To 5 Suffolk Housing Authorities

SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Over $1 million was recently awarded to several Suffolk Public Housing Authorities to keep residents housed. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced this month that a total of $472 million in CARES Act funding will be going to help low income families during the coronavirus pandemic nationwide.

"This funding will provide additional resources to public housing authorities to make sure people have a decent, safe, and affordable place to call home," Carson said. "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 funding can be used by Public Housing Authorities to help families assisted by Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV) and Mainstream vouchers to prevent, prepare for and respond to the coronavirus. New York has been awarded $55,123,717 and in Suffolk County, five different housing authorities and communities were awarded $1,208,897.

Check out the full list of recipients in Suffolk County below:

• Town of Huntington Housing Authority - $98,900
• Town of Islip Housing Authority - $365,820
• Riverhead Housing Development Corproration - $48,245
• Village of Patchogue CDA - $45,229
• Town of Babylon - $236,922

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV) includes the Mainstream Program which provides tenant-based vouchers that serve 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.).