EBENSBURG, Pa. – Cambria County will soon be required to send more than $4 million of funding it received for rental assistance in the county back to the state.
Controller Ed Cernic said that his office received word from state officials that the county will be required to return $4.2 million of funding in the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).
“They wanted us to return some funding because there are other places in the state that are using the funding up faster than we are so they wanted to redistribute some of the money,” he said.
Cernic added that his office appealed to keep a remainder of that amount, but the appeal was denied.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 included funding for states to establish emergency rental assistance programs, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Pennsylvania received approximately $569 million to administer assistance to renters, landlords and utility providers who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic insecurity.
The county received more than $8 million in funding to administer, beginning in April 2021.
Currently, $5.7 million remains from the first round of ERAP funding with about $81,000 being paid out on Friday.
With the payment and the amount to be returned to the state, the remaining available from the first round of funding to be used by September will be $1.4 million.
Cernic said that the county also has $6.9 million from the sound round of ERAP funding that can still be used and believes the county is in a better place to speed up the application process in addition to having until 2026 to use the funds.
In April, the county hired an accountant to help employees from Cambria County Behavioral Health/Intellectual Disabilities process applications.
Cernic said the county is hoping to hire a second individual to help with applications.
More information for applying for the program is available at www.dhs.pa.gov/ERAP/Pages/ERAP.aspx.
Katie Smolen is a reporter with The Tribune-Democrat. Follow her on Twitter @KSmolen1230.
