Ventura, CA –The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe economic and health impacts in our community. Local revenues have dropped while, at the same time, there has been an increased need for health, social and business services. Over the past ten months of response the County of Ventura has been committed to providing local assistance directly to the community. $120 million has been provided in local assistance. This support will continue into the new year.
“Our community members and businesses continue to struggle from the impacts of the pandemic. Our Board has been committed to supporting our community throughout the response efforts and will continue to come along side to meet the needs into the new year,” said County Executive Officer Mike Powers. “The new Congressional COVID Relief Bill provides badly needed support for unemployment and businesses. Though the bill lacks funding for local government, the County has budgeted to allow business and rental support programs to continue to be developed.”
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The County of Ventura’s COVID-19 Response Spending Plan thru March 31, 2021 is $206 million. This includes funding for the following areas:
- Local Assistance $120 million: Business Assistance (additional $20 million assistance program), Rental Assistance, Homeless Support, Food Support, Farmworker Assistance, Hospital Assistance, City Assistance, Senior Support
- Testing $58 million
- Vaccine Distribution, PPE, Supplies and Equipment $9 million
- County Operations $19 million
“The County of Ventura’s strong fiscal position allowed us to act quickly to provide significant services and supplies in response to the pandemic. Available reserves were used to quickly ramp up supportive programs such as providing housing and meals to at risk populations, testing and tracing resources and PPE and hospital surge capacity preparation,” said County Chief Financial Officer Kaye Mand.
Local assistance has included funding for Project Roomkey and Project Homekey, senior nutrition and food delivery programs, rental assistance program, business assistance program, city support, Food Share support, Farmworker Assistance and support for local non-profit hospitals.
Congress has passed $900 billion coronavirus relief plan that includes $300 weekly unemployment supplement, $600 direct payments, nearly $300 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans and $69 billion for testing and vaccine distribution.
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