HHS News:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), released $994.5 million from the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund (PEAF) to assist needy families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

States, the District of Columbia, tribes operating a Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and all five U.S. territories were eligible to receive funds; all but one of these 131 eligible entities requested funds and received their maximum allotments.

President Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion emergency relief bill – the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) – aimed at providing additional relief to the millions of individuals and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  PEAF funds are part of this relief and provide critical support to help needy families with a specific crisis or need caused by the pandemic’s economic hardships.

“Losing a paycheck is tough for so many families, but especially low-income families,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.  “The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted so many families working to make ends meet, and these funds are critical to provide some much-needed relief.”

“Families need immediate help addressing the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” JooYeun Chang said, acting assistant secretary at ACF. “These funds provide direct assistance to families who experienced economic harm as a result of the pandemic.”

“Many low-income American families have experienced substantial economic and personal losses. These funds will enable states, territories, and tribes to strengthen their safety net services by providing urgent relief to those families most in need,” Susan Golonka said, acting director of ACF’s Office of Family Assistance. “We hope this leads the way for states to adopt permanent changes to their TANF programs to be more responsive to the economic needs of families.” 

Grantees can use PEAF funds for a range of non-recurrent, short term benefits to help needy families, including one-time payments to provide extra cash to assist families in dealing with added costs caused by the pandemic or assistance for families who are behind in rent or experiencing other housing insecurity due to the pandemic.

More information about PEAF funds can be found on the Office of Family Assistance website.