Alachua County CARES Act distributions reach $21 million for individuals

CARES Act
CARES Act

Alachua County has already disbursed more than $13.6 million in CARES Act funds to 3,450 Alachua County households and estimates that the total will reach more than $21 million once all qualified applications have been processed.

In a special Board of County Commissioners meeting on Dec. 1st, the board received an update on the distribution of $46.9 million awarded to the County to disburse between individuals and businesses impacted fiscally by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The BOCC set aside $21 million from the total to be awarded to individuals in households that made less than $58,680 for one member, $67,080 between two household members, $75,480 between three household members, $83,760 between four household members, $90,480 between five household members,  $97,200 between six household members, $103,920 between seven household members, and $110,640 between eight or more household members.

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Applicants had to submit proof of loss of income due to the pandemic such as business shutdowns, layoffs or decrease in paycheck amounts starting in March, 2020.

April Shuping of the Gainesville CPA firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram told the BOCC that even with an application denial rate of 40 percent, she expects 9,828 individual applicants will be awarded a total disbursement of $21,783,613 when the process is complete. The window for submitting applications for CARES Act funds for individuals and businesses ended on Nov. 15.

Shuping reported on where the funds were distributed within the County, and said they aligned closely with population percentages with Gainesville residents receiving 53.37 percent of the funds and the unincorporated parts of Alachua County receiving 34.27 percent of the funds so far.

Residents in the City of Alachua received $648,021 or 4.74 percent of the funds, in High Springs $305, 513 or 2.23 percent, Newberry $300, 434 or 2.2 percent, Hawthorne $184,091 or 1.35 percent, Archer $115,504 or .84 percent, Waldo $88,410 or .65 percent, Micanopy $32,476 or .24 percent, and LaCrosse $16,750 or .12 percent.

“A little more than half has gone to City of Gainesville residents with about a third going to unincorporated,” Shuping said. “These actually align pretty closely with population percentages as we would expect. I don’t think there’s any big surprises in these numbers.”

The BOCC initially approved the individual assistance maximum of $2,500 for Covid impacts from March 1, 2020, through July 31, 2020 but increased that amount to $5,000 in September.

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