The Haines Borough began cutting checks last week for a CARES Act-funded grant program targeting lower-income residents who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.
The program awards $1,000 per adult and $500 per dependent child. In total, Haines residents requested $768,500, but not all applicants were eligible.
The program had been funded with $625,000 from the CARES Act. At a meeting on Oct. 27, the Haines Borough Assembly voted to fully fund the program to allow staff to begin sending out checks to those who clearly qualified.
“We sent 305 checks out (last) week, and we sent out roughly 175 emails requesting additional information for applications we are still processing,” borough chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart said.
At an assembly meeting in October, borough clerk and interim manager Alekka Fullerton said people could be ineligible for the program or asked to provide additional information to prove they are eligible for a number of reasons. Program requirements include Haines residency, income loss due to the pandemic, and an anticipated 2020 income of $40,000 or less, or a joint income of $80,000 or less.
The residency requirement is based on 2019 Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) eligibility. If a Haines resident wasn’t eligible for the PFD, then the borough turns to voter registration and personal knowledge of the individual to verify eligibility.
“We still do have a number of people who applied who say they’re eligible for the PFD, (but) they do not appear on any list for the State of Alaska, they are not registered voters, they are not people who we recognize, and we do have a duty to make sure they are Haines residents,” Fullerton said.
Another common reason applications were questioned or rejected was because, although the individual expected to make less than $40,000, they hadn’t suffered any income loss due to COVID-19, Fullerton said.
Verifying eligibility for the grant program as well as administering the borough’s other CARES Act-funded programs has taken a significant amount of staff time.
“Rough guess, we have probably spent between $20,000 and $30,000 administering the small business grant, fisherman’s grant, household grant, and individual grant,” Stuart said.
In total, the borough has received roughly $4 million through the CARES Act, a federal coronavirus relief measure passed this spring. All funding from the CARES Act must be spent by the end of the year.