During the COVID-19 pandemic, some City of Austin departments aren’t just facing challenges with not having enough money to spend, the pandemic may also mean certain funds don’t get fully used.
Austin’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development (NHCD) said that as a result of the pandemic, their team members have not been able to meet with residents who are trying to get help through the city’s home repairs program, leaving some grant dollars unspent.
The delays to the program during COVID-19, combined with additional unspent dollars from the program over the past two or three years, resulted in over $2.6 million that had been unused, explained Rebecca Giello, the deputy director for NHCD.
Those unspent dollars came to Austin through the federal Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG).