Montgomery County might add $6 million to what it already has earmarked to help businesses, nonprofits and residents in the community during the pandemic.
The County Council is set to vote on three separate amounts on Thursday:
• an additional $5 million to double the current $5 million Emergency Assistance Relief Payment (EARP) program
• $750,000 for food security and assistance
• $250,000 for telework grants for businesses and nonprofits that need to help their employees convert to working from home
The EARP program, which would reach $10 million, will provide grants to individuals and families who are not eligible for federal or state aid and have an income of less than 50% of the federal poverty level.
About 1,300 families accessing services through the county’s Care for Kids program will receive the first grants — $1,000 for each family with one child. An extra $150 will be provided for each additional child.
The maximum amount for those grants is $1,450.
A separate $1 million the County Council previously approved will go to the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, or DHHS, to distribute for safety net programs, such as for the homeless.
Council Member Nancy Navarro said at the virtual council meeting on Tuesday that the additional $5 million would be used for continued help for families who can’t find help elsewhere.
“This might not even be enough, as we keep saying, because unfortunately when it comes to these particular families, there is no other kind of help,” she said at the meeting.
The $750,000 will go to the county’s Food Security Task Force, which assists families with food “security” — having a steady, reliable supply — and assistance during the health crisis.
Of the $750,000 for food assistance, $400,000 will support providers in the county, $300,000 will purchase ethnic and culturally appropriate food from ethnic grocery stores to be distributed to areas with vulnerable residents, and $50,000 will be used to design a long-term strategy that uses local food producers.
Council Member Craig Rice said that more people in the county become food insecure every day.
“The number of people who are actually calling into our 311 centers and some of our Manna Food Centers and other food providers are off the charts in terms of those who require language assistance,” he said at the meeting. “That says something about where we need to focus our efforts.”
Navarro said partnering with ethnic grocery stores will create a sense of familiarity for some residents receiving food assistance. People in low-income communities of color and immigrants are suffering, she said.
Council Member Gabe Albornoz said the council has a humanitarian crisis on its hands.
“Everything we can do to support our community and provide those essential and basic needs such as food security, such as rental assistance, has never been more important than right now,” he said at the meeting.
The $250,000 telework grant fund will go to small businesses and nonprofits to help cover costs of having employees work remotely. Applicants must be primarily located in the county and have no more than 100 employees.
The initial plan for the telework grants, which are up to $2,500 apiece, was for them to come out of the county’s $25 million Public Health Emergency Grant Program. That program is providing grants of up to $75,000 for small businesses and nonprofits.
But Council Member Andrew Friedson said there was a discrepancy between the council’s intent and the draft of the grant program versus the ways the county’s administration interpreted it in requiring applicants to demonstrate a 50% revenue loss for the telework grants.
“We didn’t want this competing with the funding we’ve already appropriated,” Friedson said at the meeting. “We didn’t want this to be caught up in the challenges the administration has had with figuring out how to calculate the losses.”
Public hearings and votes on the three funds are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the council’s virtual meeting on Thursday.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.
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