In the News

Texarkana gets coronavirus assistance from HUD

Texarkana Gazette
4/3/2020

The city is getting $165,006 in federal funds to help facilitate its coronavirus response — with more to come.

The funds come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

In total, Arkansas municipalities were awarded more than $23 million in coronavirus assistance.

U.S. Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton, along with Congressmen Rick Crawford, French Hill, Steve Womack and Bruce Westerman—applauded this action, according to a press release from Boozman's office in Washington.

The grants, totaling over $23.6 million, come from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which recently became law with the support of the Arkansas delegation.

The majority of the funds come from HUD's Community Development Block Grant program, which can be used by Arkansas communities to make improvements to public facilities that are necessary to the COVID-19 response, support businesses to increase economic development and provide increased public services during the
outbreak.

The CARES Act allocated $5 billion to the CDBG program to help communities prevent, prepare for and respond to the coronavirus. This is the first round of CDBG grants released and additional funding will be made available on a rolling basis.

"Our communities need help addressing the severe, complex struggles presented by the coronavirus pandemic. We appreciate how quickly Secretary Ben Carson and his team at HUD have acted to award these grants. These funds are critical to overcoming the challenges our communities are facing," the delegation said.

The following Arkansas municipalities received CDBG grants in these amounts: Conway $269,734; Fayetteville $436,285; Fort Smith $530,840; Hot Springs $254,743; Jacksonville $123,984; Jonesboro $362,524; Little Rock $879,049 along with an additional $81,216 from the Housing Opportunities for
Persons with AIDS program; North Little Rock $406,388; Pine Bluff $411,412; Rogers $270,024; Springdale $478,318; and West Memphis
$186,531.

In addition to the grants made directly to municipalities, HUD awarded AEDC more than $10.8 million in CDBG funds to distribute, as well as more than $7.8 million from the Emergency Solutions Grant program and $133,620 in HOPWA funding.