{"id":7610,"date":"2020-05-22T20:24:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T00:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=7610"},"modified":"2020-05-22T20:24:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T00:24:47","slug":"polk-cares-financial-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2020\/05\/22\/polk-cares-financial-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk Cares financial assistance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Did you know that qualified Polk County residents can apply online for financial assistance through Polk\u2019s portion of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant? Go to www.polk-county.net\/PolkCares2020<\/a> for more information and to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a City of Lakeland resident and need assistance with your rent and utilities due to the verifiable impacts of COVID-19, you can also visit\u00a0LakelandGov.net\/CAREprogram<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Relief funding is on its way to Polk County\u2019s small businesses as the first checks from the Polk CARES 2020 funding were mailed from Bartow Friday, just days after the county began accepting applications for funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Board wants to get this money to the businesses and residents who need relief in a responsible and expedited manner,\u201d said Polk County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Bill Braswell. \u201cThis is what our community needs to help preserve our local economy and allow our most vulnerable residents the ability to provide for their families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polk County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller\u2019s office printed the 84 checks, which totaled $121,500, and mailed them Friday in an effort to expedite the process. Additional checks for individuals are expected to be mailed in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe CARES Act funds are providing important relief to our small businesses and residents who have been deeply impacted by this pandemic,\u201d said Clerk Stacy Butterfield, Polk County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller. \u201cThe processing and disbursement of these federal funds is a big undertaking, and it is our top priority to make this happen as quickly as possible. The Board of County Commissioners and I have pulled together staff members from our offices to facilitate this project. We have a dedicated call center as well as processing and disbursement teams working rapidly to get the relief in the hands of our businesses and residents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through Thursday evening, the county had received 3,760 applications from individuals and 1,013 applications from small businesses, which will account for about $1.5 million in funding once approved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late April, the county received $126 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant meant to provide relief to small businesses and residents who were either furloughed or laid off from their jobs. The Board of County Commissioners allocated $40 million for small business economic development needs and $30 million for health and human service needs. The remaining $56 million will be used for community healthcare related to the coronavirus and county and local government\u2019s costs and services in dealing with COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both funds are offered on a first-come, first-served basis until the allocation is gone. Funds allocated by Polk County from the federal government\u2019s CARES Act to both small businesses and individuals do not have to be paid back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The online application process requires residents and business owners to fill out a form and attach verifying documentation with the application. Residents who do not have technology access to complete the online process may contact United Way of Central Florida at 2-1-1 to apply for assistance from Polk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The online applications for both households and small businesses are available on the Polk County website at www.polk-county.net\/polk-cares-2020<\/a>. You may print the application and required documentation and either mail it or deliver it; however, applications submitted electronically will be reviewed much quicker. Printed applications may be delivered or sent to the Communications Division, Board of County Commissioners, 330 W. Church St., Bartow, FL 33830.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that qualified Polk County residents can apply online for financial assistance through Polk\u2019s portion of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act grant? Go… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}