COVID -19 Child Care and Housing Assistance Program

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The COVID-19 Child Care and Housing Assistance Program was created to provide financial relief to families in need of child care for school-aged children, and assistance to households at risk of losing housing because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the global pandemic, in 2020, the Governor of North Carolina ordered schools to close – moving students to a remote environment overnight. To provide families with alternative resource-rich environments for children, the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners authorized more than $800,000 of CARES Act funding to child care assistance from licensed facilities in New Hanover County. The purpose of the child care portion of the program was to ensure that families had safe, adequate and affordable child care for school age children, Pre-K up to 12 years old, during the adjustment of New Hanover County Schools schedules as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic. The purpose of the housing assistance portion of the program, was to assist New Hanover County individuals and households that experienced an economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic with sustaining and/or gaining access to housing. The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners authorized more than $400,000 for this program. These programs successfully provided child care and housing assistance to families in need of assistance from the COVID 19 pandemic.