ACT to facilitate Community Assistance program
On Thursday March 3, the Andover Select Board approved $200,000 for the Community Assistance program as part of Andover’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding framework. A total of $10,867,057 will be allocated to the Town of Andover by the United States Department of Treasury. The Treasury issued its guidelines for how the funds should be expended and town departments have met and set funding priorities in four focus areas. Those four areas are:
Capital Improvements/Infrastructure
Public Health and Pandemic Response
Community Engagement and Administration
Community Assistance and Partnerships
You can view the presentation from the February 28, 2022 Select Board meeting which details the allocation and framework. Newly released information from the US Treasury indicated that over $20 billion was spent for emergency assistance to households and housing services helping 3.2 million households in 2021. The Town of Andover helped 60 households with over $138,000 from its CARES funds.
The new ARPA funded community assistance program will include help for overdue rent, mortgage, utilities and other housing payments as well as unforeseen housing costs. The program is open to Andover residents who are earning no more than 100% of the area median income for the household and find themselves unable to pay housing costs due to unemployment, underemployment or other continuing hardship associated with the pandemic. This Community Assistance program is a portion of community assistance and partnerships focus area.
