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Friday, March 29, 2024

City Hall is preparing to issue checks from a $3.2 million Mayor’s Disaster Relief Fund. (Photo: Marc Levy)

Applications for the Mayor’s Disaster Relief Fund will be accepted starting Monday, with a maximum payment “at this time” of $4,000, officials said in a Wednesday email. Immigration status will not be a factor in determining applicant eligibility.

The fund, reactivated March 19 to assist with financial hardship resulting from the Covid-19 coronavirus, has raised more than $3.2 million. The city will begin issuing checks to approved applicants as soon as next week, City Manager Louis A. DePasquale said.

The fund’s trustees are prioritizing applicants who demonstrate a loss of income, including for rent and utility payments or other household needs, and for mortgage payments for homes bought through the city’s affordable homeownership programs, officials said.

An online application process is planned to launch Monday, with a phone system at (617) 349-9797.

More than 50 city staff are being trained to take applications, said Ellen Semonoff, assistant city manager for human services.

“We are all working around the clock to implement systems to facilitate quick distribution of these funds. As we cannot predict when we will be through this pandemic, establishing the framework for supporting our community now is incredibly important. Cambridge families can be assured that every effort is being made for timely distribution of these much-needed funds as we face this unprecedented crisis,” Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui said in the emailed press release.

To be eligible for funds, applicants must be Cambridge residents; tenants or an owner of an Affordable Homeownership Program home; with income at or below 100 percent of the area median income before the coronavirus (for example, $119,000 for a four-person household); and be able to show a loss of income as a result of the virus.

Information is at cambridgema.gov/mayorsfund.


This post took significant amounts of material from a press release.