CARES Act in Action: CDBG and ESG Funds Support Arlington Non-profit Organizations

By Office of Communication

Posted on April 28, 2020, April 28, 2020

As the City of Arlington receives and deploys CARES Act funds, the CARES Act in Action series will take a closer look into how Arlington is using its portion to serve, support and protect Arlington residents and businesses.

As a part of the CARES Act, the City of Arlington received an initial allocation of $2,995,907 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG). These funds supplement the $3.7 million in annual CDBG and ESG funds that currently serve low- and moderate-income Arlington residents and are specifically directed at helping Arlington respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CARES Act HUD funds come with some waivers and flexibilities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic more quickly than traditional grant funds. The City has developed a three-phase approach to make the most out of these funds.

First, existing CDBG grant recipients who provide urgent response services were asked to request additional non-CARES CDBG funding to expand their programs. Urgent response services include providing rental assistance, food and meal distribution, and childcare. Five organizations have requested an additional $128,000 to support increased need in the community.

Second, $260,000 of non-CARES CDBG funds that were designated for the Housing Rehabilitation Program are being re-programmed to provide temporary rental assistance for those who have had a sudden loss of income due to COVID-19 through the Arlington Housing Authority. 

Finally, the City will release two requests for proposal (RFP) for: (1) homeless service providers to request ESG CARES funding and (2) for other non-profit organizations to request CDBG CARES funds to respond to the coronavirus. The City is working to reduce the paperwork required to apply for and track these funds using HUD waivers. The ESG CARES application will be available to homeless services providers early this week and the CDBG CARES application will be available by the end of the week.  Funding is anticipated to be awarded by June.

“The swift action of Congress in passing the CARES Act, makes it possible for Arlington to move quickly to put these dollars to work in our community,” said Jay Warren, director of Communication and Legislative Affairs for the City of Arlington. “This is vital funding that can provide a lifeline to some of Arlington’s nonprofits and other groups that are working to support our most at-risk residents during this economic downturn. We are committed to getting it out the door as fast as possible help our community.”

The City of Arlington continues to monitor relief efforts enacted by Congress that can help support the Arlington economy. For more information on assistance programs and resources in Arlington, visit www.arlingtontx.gov/coronavirus.