- April 25, 2024
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Volusia County will allocate an additional $2.5 million of its coronavirus relief funds to its housing assistance programs after a split vote from the Volusia County Council at its meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 4.
The county's program offers a maximum of $1,500 a month to Volusia households who have both suffered financial losses due to the pandemic and whose income is below the area median of $77,000. These funds are slated to help with rent and mortgage costs, for up to three months. To date, Volusia County has received 3,843 applications and approved 1,865 for a total of $3.7 million expended.
With the additional allocation, approved 4-3, there are now $12.5 million allocated to help residents with rent and mortgage. Volusia County Council Chair Ed Kelley and Councilmen Fred Lowry and Ben Johnson voted against.
Volusia County Councilwoman Heather Post asked for the program funding to be increased from the previous $10 million cap, telling council that this grant program was the most important of all the ones created using the federal coronavirus relief dollars. The funding was increased from $5 million to $10 million in a past meeting.
“We have a lot of citizens who are hurting and what we don’t need is the middle class to end up in a lower class because of restrictions that the government has put on the citizens during COVID," she said.
Kelley said he voted against adding more funding to the program because $1.3 million remaining — before to the allocation was approved— was enough to provide assistance to 444 households, which should take care of any new applications turned in before their next meeting on Aug. 25. There are 1,336 applications currently under review, but funds have already been set aside for those if approved.
If more money was needed after that, he said he would have been in favor of increasing the funds. To date, 612 applications have been denied, withdrawn or applicants have been non-responsive.
Lowry said the council needed to quit "second-guessing" staff and that they needed to be careful because they won't know how much money will be available in the future for other assistance needs.
“There doesn’t seem to be any urgency," he said. "I don’t know why we’re trying to put money in something when it’s really not needed at the moment.”
However, County Chief Financial Officer Ryan Ossowski said funds could be deallocated if needed in the future via another council vote.
During her final remarks of the meeting, Post said that whether the county ends up using all of the money in the housing assistance fund isn't the issue; it's needing it at a later date but not having it because they've been allocated elsewhere. She pointed out there have been discussions about the parameters of federal relief dollars changing, and that is why she requested the increase.
“I’m not sure how asking for an increase in funding has been mistaken for no confidence in staff," Post said. "I certainly have every confidence in staff.”
