#CARES act

Maui County Council members adopted a resolution Friday that authorizes the lease of a County-owned, one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment on Lower Main Street in Wailuku to an elder displaced by the August 2023 wildfires.

Kūpuna impacted by the August 2023 wildfires are eligible for low-income senior housing in an initiative launched by the nonprofit J. Walter Cameron Center in response to the island’s post-disaster housing crisis.

The US Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.28 million in federal funding to the University of Hawaiʻi Systems to train new community health workers.

Children attending eight Maui Economic Opportunity Head Start preschool sites are enjoying new play structures in a $506,000 renovation project completed last week.

A new UH report describes how the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic created a perfect storm in which private laboratories could earn huge profits from PCR testing while insurance companies could pass those lab fees on to customers.

The payments focus on supporting smaller health care providers that have experienced revenue losses related to the pandemic and providers serving Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Medicare beneficiaries.

This yearʻs grant program, through the American Rescue Plan, is not a business reimbursement program; rather, it is a $5,000 grant for any qualifying business– restaurant, bar, or gym.

A total of 391 health care providers in Hawai‘i will receive a combined $36,994,939 in federal funding to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and continue providing health care for families across the state.

Stacy Higa, 58, a former public official from Hilo, Hawaiʻi, pleaded guilty today to embezzling more than $38,000 from AmeriCorps and also to offering a bribe in return for grants under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations today announced it paid $700 million to the US Department of the Treasury for advances it has received to pay regular unemployment insurance benefits.

The University of Hawaiʻi will expand its innovation, entrepreneurship and workforce development program with the support of a $2.7-million CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant from the US Economic Development Administration. This will be matched with $813,068 of local funding.

Seven SBA-approved lenders have secured more than $1.2 billion in the second round of the federal Paycheck Protection Program to fund 12,887 local companies and support payrolls for an estimated 140,000 jobs statewide. The deadline to apply for PPP has been extended to May 31.

Although the U.S. DOL projected that many states would need until the middle of April or later to implement the new provisions and begin notifying individuals, the department notes there will be no lag in benefits for most claimants as long as they remain eligible for benefits.

A Waiʻanae man pled guilty in federal court on Friday to embezzling more than $500,000 from the nonprofit AmeriCorps, and agreeing to accept a bribe for the administration of CARES Act funds.

The Hawaiʻi Department of Labor & Industrial Relations today announced updates about unemployment insurance and pandemic-related assistance benefits, which are being extended due the new federal stimulus act signed last week by President Joe Biden.

The Federal Communications Commission approved two additional applications submitted by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for broadband licenses in response to a Rural Tribal Priority Window.

US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaiʻi) announced that Hawaiʻi will receive $1,033,100 to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic among Pacific Islanders.

Programming updates and federal funding has allowed the state Department of Labor & Industrial Relations to offer a choice of either Extended Benefits (EB20) or Pandemic Unemployment Emergency Compensation (PEUC) for claimants that filed for EB20 between Dec. 15 and 28, 2020.

Hawaiʻi’s Rent Relief and Housing Assistance Program has distributed nearly $60 million in rental assistance to 13,690 Hawai‘i households.

A free public Zoom presentation about seven Maui County environmental projects funded with federal CARES Act aid will be held Jan. 27 at 5:30 pm.