Background

On March 13, 2020, the President declared the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant an emergency declaration for all states, tribes, territories, and the District of Columbia pursuant to section 501 (b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5121-5207 (the “Stafford Act”). The President has since provided major disaster declarations for certain areas pursuant to section 401 of the Stafford Act.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act (P.L. 116-136) includes $5 billion for the Community Development Fund, enabling additional U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) support for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) grantees. Grantees may use existing and expanded CDBG funds for a range of eligible activities that prevent and respond to the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

Eligible Activity Areas

Public Services

  • Testing, diagnosis or other services at a fixed or mobile location.
  • Job training to expand the pool of health care workers and technicians.
  • Delivery of Meals on Wheels to quarantined individuals or individuals that need to maintain social distancing due to medical vulnerabilities.
  • Equipment, supplies, and materials necessary to carry-out a public service.

Economic Development

  • Short-term working capital assistance to small businesses to enable retention of jobs held by LMI persons.
  • Grants or loans to new businesses or business expansions to create jobs and manufacture necessary medical supplies.

Public Facilities – Acquisition, reconstruction, construction, or installation

  • Construct or rehabilitate a facility for testing, diagnosis or treatment.
  • Acquire and rehabilitate a motel or hotel building to expand capacity of hospitals to accommodate isolation of patients during recovery.
  • Construct or retrofit facilities to store and distribute items for COVID-19.

Flexibility of CARES Act

The CARES Act provides CDBG grantees with flexibilities to expedite use of CDBG-CV (Coronavirus) funds. These include:

  • Elimination of 15% cap on grant funds used for public services.
  • Reimbursement of costs to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, regardless of when such costs were incurred.
  • Expedited citizen participation procedures for consolidated plans.
  • Extension of deadline for action plans or updates to 2019 or 2020; consolidated plans to August 16, 2021.

How can Tidal Basin help with this process?

Tidal Basin’s disaster recovery and CDBG experts are ready to deploy and help state and local governments navigate the complexities of their COVID-19 response. We provide the needed capacity to get the CDBG-CV funds out the door quickly. Our services include, but are not limited to: CDBG-CV program design; CDBG-CV action plan amendment development; coordination of funding; portfolio and program management; and compliance oversight and reporting.

Download “What COVID-19 Means To CDBG Grantees & Recipients”

Please contact us for additional information and guidance.