Distributed Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020
The Escambia County Family CARES Grant program application and verification process, which began on Sept. 25, has officially closed. The county approved 5,500 households for the $3,000 grants. Escambia County residents will receive $16.5 million from this appropriation program. In its four-day application window, the county received a higher than anticipated volume of applications with 9,558 households submitting information.
“We are pleased to be completed with the certification process for this grant, which is so helpful to the citizens of our county,” said Clara Long, director of Neighborhood and Human Services Department. “At this time, we’ve approved 5,500 grants, and we have officially closed the application and approval process for the Family CARES Grant Program. Our staff took the time to work with residents who needed assistance in completing the application correctly, and due to federal funding deadlines, we are no longer accepting additional information.”
To date, the Escambia County Clerk and Comptroller's office has released more than 4,100 of the 5,500 payments.
Applicants may check their status on the application portal. If the status is listed as "complete," the application has been summited to the Clerk and Comptroller's office for final review and payment.
If the status is listed as "application under review," and additional federal funding is allocated in the future then these will be reviewed.
An application listed as "denied" will not receive the grant due to eligibility requirements.
The county has a list of all Family CARES Grant payments made on its website. If checks were returned to the county due to an insufficient address or unable to forward, the county is no longer able to provide further assistance. Residents should allow time for the check to be processed and mailed.
“Our staff has been working hard to ensure that this money gets in the hands of our citizens quickly, but we also worked diligently to make sure that only the individuals who qualified were on the receiving end of this allocation,” Long added.
The Escambia County Family CARES Grant program is part of a larger federally funded stimulus package. In total, there is a $57.3 million allocation for Escambia County, which is required to be spent by the Dec. 30. 2020 deadline.
