Honolulu CARES Act Funds to be Spent This Month

Linda Hohnholz - editor

The City and County of Honolulu has allocated all of its $387 million in CARES Act funds to support O‘ahu’s recovery.

“We expect to spend all of the CARES money allocated to Honolulu as close to the end of November as possible to make sure that people get help for the holidays. The money will be spent according to our recovery plan: Creating a COVID-safe economy, helping people and businesses get back on their feet, and developing new opportunities for a post-COVID-19 economy,” said Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

“Many people who may qualify for the Household Hardship Relief Fund haven’t applied, even though they need the help right now. Please spread the word about these opportunities and urge anyone who is struggling to apply for these funds as soon as possible.”

Below are updates on key support programs funded by CARES Act money.

Helping People

Household Hardship Relief Fund
  • Provides $25 million in grants to help people negatively impacted by COVID-19.
  • Qualified households receive up to $2,500 a month toward housing, childcare, medical costs, and other emergency expenses.
  • Approximately $6.7 million in Household Hardship Relief Fund assistance has benefited 5,700 applicants, as of November 4.
  • People experiencing COVID hardship are urged to apply at: honolulu.gov/dcs.

Helping Small Businesses

Small Business Relief and Recovery Fund
  • Nearly $126 million in grants has helped about 6,000 local businesses pay their rent, lease, or qualified emergency expenses. It’s expected that all funds will be expended by next week.
  • More than half of the grants covered businesses’ rent and lease costs.
  • Depending on the status of processed applications or the allocation of additional funds, the program may reopen.
Pop Up Makeke
  • This Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement initiative to help local businesses adapt to COVID-19 by selling products online is partially supported by CARES Act funding.
  • Online shoppers bought about 19,000 products from local businesses in October.
Supporting Local Food Production
  • Fish to Dish is a partnership with the Hawai‘i Longline Association, the Honolulu Fish Auction, the Hawai‘i Seafood Council, and the Hawai‘i Foodbank.
  • Local fishermen in Fish to Dish have caught enough fish to make 250,000 fillets for people in need so far, or 71% of our goal of 350,000 fish fillets for free meals.
Back on the Wave
  • About 900 small businesses have joined this initiative to create a COVID-safe economy, an increase from 750 earlier this week.

Protecting People’s Health

Mobile COVID-19 Testing Lab
  • Invested $16 million in the integrated testing laboratory at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Includes 42,000 COVID-19 tests, contact tracing capabilities, reporting software, personnel, swabs, and equipment.
  • The facility can process up to 10,000 tests a day.
Free COVID-19 Testing
  • Invested up to $4 million in a COVID-19 testing center at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaiʻi.
  • With City support, the medical school provides free tests at all seven community health centers on O‘ahu.
  • We encourage anyone who thinks they need a COVID-19 test to visit https://www.oneoahu.org/covid19-testing for a list of sites.
Quarantine/Isolation
  • Secured up to 452 hotel rooms for isolation and quarantine services for residents of O‘ahu who have no other opportunity to safely isolate as they recover from COVID-19.
  • Rooms can also be used by the City’s first responders who may have come into contact with a positive COVID-19 patient.
CARES Act Dashboard on OneOahu.org
  • Oneoahu.org/dashboard is updated weekly to keep the community informed about how the City and County of Honolulu is deploying CARES Act funding to support our island’s recovery.

The Honolulu CARES Funding Dashboard was launched online on September 11.

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