Eligibility
ELIGIBLE CATEGORIES
Pandemic Recovery Funds can be used for projects that fulfill funding intent, meeting one or more ARPA eligibility categories, and that directly address a stated impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These categories will be reflected in scoring; great projects will fall into multiple categories.
Categories
- Respond to the Public Health Emergency/Respond to Its Negative Economic Impacts
- Replace Lost Public Sector Revenue
- Provide Premium Pay for Essential Workers
- Invest in Necessary Water, Sewer, or Broadband Infrastructure
- Respond to the Public Health Emergency
- RESPOND TO NEGATIVE ECONOMIC IMPACTS
- Replace Lost Public Sector Revenue
- Provide Premium Pay for Essential Workers
- Invest in necessary Water, Sewer, or Broadband Infrastructure
- COVID-19 Prevention and Mitigation
- Types of Projects:
- Vaccination programs, including vaccine incentives and vaccine sites
- Testing programs, equipment, and sites
- Monitoring, contact tracing & public health surveillance (e.g., monitoring for variants)
- Public communication efforts
- Public health data systems COVID-19 prevention and treatment equipment, such as ventilators and ambulances
- Medical and PPE/protective supplies
- Support for isolation or quarantine
- Ventilation system installation and improvement
- Technical assistance on mitigation of COVID-19 threats to public health and safety
- Transportation to reach vaccination or testing sites, or other prevention and mitigation services for vulnerable populations
- Support for prevention, mitigation, or other services in congregate living facilities, public facilities, and schools
- Support for prevention and mitigation strategies in small businesses, nonprofits, and impacted industries
- Medical facilities generally dedicated to COVID-19 treatment and mitigation (e.g., ICUs, emergency rooms)
- Temporary medical facilities and other measures to increase COVID-19 treatment capacity
- Emergency operations centers & emergency response equipment (e.g., emergency response radio systems)
- Public telemedicine capabilities for COVID-19 related treatment
- Types of Projects:
- Medical Expenses
- Types of Projects:
- Unreimbursed expenses for medical care for COVID-19 testing or treatment, such as uncompensated care costs for medical providers or out-of-pocket costs for individuals
- Paid family and medical leave for public employees to enable compliance with COVID-19 public health precautions
- Emergency medical response expenses
- Treatment of long-term symptoms or effects of COVID-19
- Types of Projects:
- Behavioral Health Care
- Types of Projects:
- Prevention, outpatient treatment, inpatient treatment, crisis care, diversion programs, outreach to individuals not yet engaged in treatment, harm reduction & long-term recovery support
- Enhanced behavioral health services in schools
- Services for pregnant women or infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome
- Support for equitable access to reduce disparities in access to high-quality treatment
- Peer support groups, costs for residence in supportive housing or recovery housing, and the 988 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or other hotline services
- Expansion of access to evidence-based services for opioid use disorder prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery
- Behavioral health facilities & equipment
- Types of Projects:
- Preventing and Responding to Violence
- Types of Projects:
- Referrals to trauma recovery services for victims of crime
- Community violence intervention programs, including evidence-based practices like focused deterrence, with wraparound services such as behavioral therapy, trauma recovery, job training, education, housing, and relocation services, and financial assistance
- In communities experiencing increased gun violence due to the pandemic: • Law enforcement officers focused on advancing community policing • Enforcement efforts to reduce gun violence, including prosecution • Technology & equipment to support law enforcement response
- Types of Projects:
- Assistance to Individuals, Households, and Communities
- Eligibility:
- Low- or moderate-income individuals, households, or communities
- Low-income individuals, households, and communities only
- Individuals, households, or communities that experienced unemployment
- Individuals, households, or communities that experienced increased food or housing insecurity
- Individuals, households, or communities that qualify for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Childcare Subsidies through the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) Program, or Medicaid Programs
- Individuals, households, or communities that qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Free and Reduced-Price Lunch (NSLP) and/or School Breakfast (SBP) programs, Medicare Part D Low-income Subsidies, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Head Start and/or Early Head Start, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Section 8 Vouchers, Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), or Pell Grants
- (For Affordable Housing Projects) Individuals, households, or communities that qualify for the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF)and Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME)
- (For Lost Instructional Time in K-12 Schools) Any student that lost access to in-person instruction for a significant period of time
- (For Addressing Educational Disparities) Title I Eligible Schools
- Individuals, households, or communities residing in Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs)
- Types of Projects:
- Food assistance & food banks
- Emergency housing assistance: rental assistance, mortgage assistance, utility assistance, assistance paying delinquent property taxes, counseling and legal aid to prevent eviction and homelessness & emergency programs or services for homeless individuals, including temporary residences for people experiencing homelessness
- Health insurance coverage expansion
- Benefits for surviving family members of individuals who have died from COVID-19
- Assistance to individuals who want and are available for work, including job training, public jobs programs and fairs, support for childcare and transportation to and from a job site or interview, incentives for newly employed workers, subsidized employment, grants to hire underserved workers, assistance to unemployed individuals to start small businesses & development of job and workforce training centers
- Financial services for the unbanked and underbanked
- Burials, home repair & home weatherization
- Programs, devices & equipment for internet access and digital literacy, including subsidies for costs of access
- Cash assistance
- Paid sick, medical, and family leave programs
- Assistance in accessing and applying for public benefits or services
- Childcare and early learning services, home visiting programs, services for child welfare involved families and foster youth & childcare facilities
- Assistance to address the impact of learning loss for K-12 students (e.g., high-quality tutoring, differentiated instruction)
- Programs or services to support long-term housing security: including development of affordable housing and permanent supportive housing
- Certain contributions to an Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund
- Pay for community health workers to help households access health & social services
- Remediation of lead paint or other lead hazards
- Primary care clinics, hospitals, integration of health services into other settings, and other investments in medical equipment & facilities designed to address health disparities
- Housing vouchers & assistance relocating to neighborhoods with higher economic opportunity
- Investments in neighborhoods to promote improved health outcomes
- Improvements to vacant and abandoned properties, including rehabilitation or maintenance, renovation, removal and remediation of environmental contaminants, demolition or deconstruction, greening/vacant lot cleanup & conversion to affordable housing
- Services to address educational disparities, including assistance to high-poverty school districts & educational and evidence-based services to address student academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs
- Schools and other educational equipment & facilities
- Eligibility:
- Assistance to Small Businesses
- Eligibility:
- Decreased Revenue or Gross Receipts
- Financial Insecurity
- Increased Costs
- Capacity to Weather Financial Hardship
- Challenges Covering Payroll, Rent or Mortgage, and Other Operating Costs
- Small Businesses Operating in Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs)
- Types of Projects:
- Loans or grants to mitigate financial hardship, such as by supporting payroll and benefits, costs to retain employees, and mortgage, rent, utility, and other operating costs
- Technical assistance, counseling, or other services to support business planning
- Rehabilitation of commercial properties, storefront improvements & façade improvements
- Technical assistance, business incubators & grants for start-up or expansion costs for small businesses
- Support for microbusinesses, including financial, childcare, and transportation costs
- Eligibility:
- Assistance to Nonprofits
- Eligibility:
- Decreased revenue (e.g., from donations and fees)
- Financial insecurity
- Increased costs (e.g., uncompensated increases in service need)
- Capacity to weather financial hardship
- Challenges covering payroll, rent or mortgage, and other operating costs
- Nonprofits operating in Qualified Census Tracts (QCTs)
- Eligibility:
- Types of Projects:
- Loans or grants to mitigate financial hardship
- Technical or in-kind assistance or other services that mitigate negative economic impacts of the pandemic
- Other appropriate responses that are related and reasonably proportional to addressing disproportionate impacts
- Assistance to Impacted Industries
- Eligibility:
- Travel, Tourism, or Hospitality Industries
- Other industries that have experienced at least eight percent employment loss from pre-pandemic levels
- Other industries that have experienced comparable or worse economic impacts as the national tourism, travel, and hospitality industries if those impacts were generally due to the COVID-19 public health emergency
- Types of Projects:
- Aid to mitigate financial hardship, such as supporting payroll costs, lost pay and benefits for returning employees, support of operations and maintenance of existing equipment and facilities
- Technical assistance, counseling, or other services to support business planning
- COVID-19 mitigation and infection prevention measures
- Eligibility:
Only Montgomery County can submit a Replace Lost Public Sector Revenue Project
- Requirements:
- Revenue Loss Must be Due to Pandemic and Funds Must Impact the Provision of Government Services
- Written Justification
- Government Services
- Provision of Public Safety
- Health and Educational Services
- Construction of Hospitals
- Revenue Loss Must be Due to Pandemic and Funds Must Impact the Provision of Government Services
- Options:
- Option 1- Elect a Standard Allowance of up to $10 Million Dollars
- Option 2- Calculate Actual Revenue Loss According to Formula
- Premium Pay May be Awarded to Eligible Workers
- Health care
- Emergency response
- Sanitation, disinfection & cleaning
- Maintenance
- Grocery stores, restaurants, food production, and food delivery
- Pharmacy
- Biomedical research
- Behavioral health
- Medical testing and diagnostics
- Home and community-based health care or assistance with activities of daily living
- Family or child care
- Social services
- Public health
- Mortuary
- Critical clinical research, development, and testing necessary for COVID-19 response
- State, local, or Tribal government workforce
- Workers providing vital services to Tribes
- Educational, school nutrition, and other work required to operate a school facility
- Laundry
- Elections
- Solid waste or hazardous materials management, response, and cleanup
- Work requiring physical interaction with patients
- Dental care
- Transportation and warehousing
- Hotel and commercial lodging facilities that are used for COVID-19 mitigation and containment
- Workers Must Perform Essential Work
- Workers must not be teleworking from a residence AND
- Workers must either-
- Have regular, in-person interactions with patients, the public, or coworkers OR
- Physically handle items that were handled by, or are to be handled by, patients, the public, or coworkers
- Premium Pay Must Be Responsive
- The worker's pay, including the premium pay, must be at or below $96,525.00 OR
- The worker is not exempt from FLSA overtime provisions OR
- There is a written justification provided
- Premium Pay
- Can be up to $13/Hour in addition, not more
- Cannot exceed $25,000 per worker during the period of performance (until December 31, 2026)
- Cannot use premium pay to reimburse previous premium pay
- May be retroactive though new cash outlay is required
- Clean Water Project
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Project is otherwise eligible under the EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSF)
- Types of Projects:
- Construction of publicly owned treatment works
- Projects pursuant to implementation of a nonpoint source pollution management program established under the Clean Water Act (CWA)
- Decentralized wastewater treatment systems that treat municipal wastewater or domestic sewage
- Management and treatment of stormwater or subsurface drainage water
- Water conservation, efficiency, or reuse measures
- Development and implementation of a conservation and management plan under the CWA
- Watershed projects meeting the criteria set forth in the CWA
- Energy consumption reduction for publicly owned treatment works
- Reuse or recycling of wastewater, stormwater, or subsurface drainage water
- Security of publicly owned treatment works
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Drinking Water Project
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Project is otherwise eligible under the EPA's Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSF)
- Types of Projects:
- Facilities to improve drinking water quality
- Transmission and distribution, including improvements of water pressure or prevention of contamination in infrastructure and lead service line replacements
- New sources to replace contaminated drinking water or increase drought resilience, including aquifer storage and recovery system for water storage
- Green infrastructure, including green roofs, rainwater harvesting collection, permeable pavement
- Storage of drinking water, such as to prevent contaminants or equalize water demands
- Purchase of water systems and interconnection of systems
- New community water systems
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Other Eligible Water or Sewer Projects
- Eligibility Requirements:
- See eligible projects below
- See eligible projects below
- Types of Projects:
- Culvert repair, resizing, and removal, replacement of storm sewers, and additional types of stormwater infrastructure
- Infrastructure to improve access to safe drinking water for individuals served by residential wells, including testing initiatives, and treatment/remediation strategies that address contamination
- Dam and reservoir rehabilitation if primary purpose of dam or reservoir is for drinking water supply and project is necessary for provision of drinking water
- Broad set of lead remediation projects eligible under EPA grant programs authorized by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, such as lead testing, installation of corrosion control treatment, lead service line replacement, as well as water quality testing, compliance monitoring, and remediation activities, including replacement of internal plumbing and faucets and fixtures in schools and childcare facilities
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Broadband Infrastructure Investment Projects
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Area has a lack of access, lack of affordable broadband, and/or lack of reliable service
- Minimum 100 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps upload speed and scalable to 100 Mbps upload speed
- Provider must participate in Federal Communications Commission’s Affordability Connectivity Program (ACP) or broad-based affordability program to low-income consumers
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Cybersecurity Investment Projects
- Type of Projects:
- New and upgraded cybersecurity infrastructure regardless of technical requirements
- Type of Projects:
OTHER ELIGIBLE USES
- Public Sector Capacity and Workforce
- Capital Expenditures
- Transfers
- Loans
- Non-Federal Match and Cost-Share
- Administrative Expenses
- Public Safety, Public Health, and Human Services Staff
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Identify Government Staff
- Staff Responding to COVID-19
- Types of Staff:
- Police officers (including state police officers)
- Sheriffs and deputy sheriffs
- Firefighters
- Emergency medical responders
- Correctional and detention officers
- Dispatchers and supervisor personnel that directly support public safety staff
- Employees involved in providing medical and other physical or mental health services to patients and supervisory personnel, including
- Medical staff assigned to schools, prisons, and other such institutions
- Laboratory technicians, medical examiners, morgue staff, and other support services essential for patient care
- Employees of public health departments directly engaged in public health matters and related supervisory personnel
- Employees providing or administering social services and public benefits
- Child welfare services employees
- Child, elder, or family care employees
- Types of Projects:
- Payroll and covered benefits for the portion of the employees’ time spent on COVID-19 response through the period of performance
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Government Employment and Rehiring Public Sector Staff
- Types of Projects:
- Restoring pre-Pandemic employment
- Supporting and retaining public sector workers
- Covering administrative costs associated with administering the hiring, support, and retention programs
- Types of Projects:
- Effective Service Delivery
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Projects that support program evaluation, data, and outreach
- Projects that address administrative needs caused or exacerbated by the pandemic
- Types of Projects:
- Program evaluation and evidence resources
- Data analysis resources to gather, assess, share, and use data
- Technology infrastructure to improve access to and the user experience of government IT systems, as well as technology improvements to increase public access and delivery of government programs and services
- Community outreach and engagement activities
- Capacity building resources to support using data and evidence, including hiring staff, consultants, or technical assistance support
- Administrative costs for programs responding to the public health emergency and its economic impacts, including non-Pandemic Recovery Funds and non-federally funded programs
- Address administrative needs caused or exacerbated by the pandemic, including addressing backlogs caused by shutdowns, increased repair or maintenance needs, and technology infrastructure to adapt government operations to the pandemic (e.g., video-conferencing software, data and case management systems)
- Eligibility Requirements:
- Requirements:
- Identify impact/harm
- Respond to impact/harm
- Written justification required if project costs $1M or greater
- Types of Projects:
- Physical plant improvements to public hospitals and health clinics
- Ventilation improvements in congregate or health care settings
- Physical plant changes to enable social distancing
- Technology infrastructure
- Capital expenditures to address vacant property
- Recreation facilities to promote improved health outcomes and public safety
The County may transfer Pandemic Recovery Funds to subrecipients to carry out eligible uses.
The County may provide loans for uses that are otherwise eligible, although there are special rules about how recipients should track program income depending on the length of the loan.
- Types of Projects:
- Loans to Nonprofits to Mitigate Financial Hardship
- Loans to Small Businesses to Implement COVID-19 Prevention or Mitigation Tactics
Generally, the Pandemic Recovery Funds may not be used for match or cost-share requirements.
- Exceptions:
- Revenue Loss Category
- Bureau of Reclamation Projects
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Broadband Projects
The County may provide direct and indirect administrative expenses involved in administering this program. Further information will provided at a later date.
ELIGIBLE SUBMITTERS
Project Submissions must be submitted by the organization or entity that will be leading the project, which is called the Lead Organization. Most organizations are eligible to serve as a Lead Organization under the Pandemic Response Fund, including for-profit businesses, nonprofits and other 501(c) organizations, fiscal sponsors, faith groups, schools, and municipalities. Individuals are not permitted to serve as the Lead Organization on a Project Submission through the Pandemic Response Fund.
Lead organizations must be in good standing with the County to be eligible to receive funds. This includes, but is not limited to, being current in all taxes and fees. Any property with an open violation or revocation of licensure will not be eligible. A review of the Lead Organization’s standing with the County, and eligibility to serve as the Lead Organization, will be conducted during the submission review process.
For Idea Submissions, both organizations and individuals may provide a submission.
OTHER ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
- Pandemic Recovery Funds cannot be used to pay for costs incurred prior to March 3, 2021 or for costs incurred after December 26, 2026.
- Ineligible uses of these funds include projects that:
- Violate Existing Laws or Regulations
- Conflict With or Contravene Purpose of the American Rescue Plan Act
- Undermine Efforts to Stop Spread of COVID-19
- Deposit into Pension Funds
- Funds for Debt Service, Replenish Financial Reserves, Satisfy Obligation Arising from Judicial Settlement or Judgment
- Self-Deal or Violate Ethics Rules
- Submission Requirements: All submissions must include a Project Budget, at a minimum. Additional documents may be submitted to further support the project rationale, project plan, or project costs. Final approval for funding or eligibility determination may require additional documentation prior to funding awards.