“The EDA CARES grant has been the most competitive grant cycle I’ve seen in years,” said Rachel Steele, CAPCOG economic and community development director, noting $236 million was allocated to a five-state area including Texas. During a six-month period, CAPCOG has supported 24 projects in seeking EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance Program funding. About 12 of the projects finalized applications for submission to the funding opportunity before it closed in early October; two of which are already receiving final funding consideration. Additional projects could still be awarded.
“Both projects selected from the region have strong ties to recovery with high job retention and creation numbers, economic diversification aspects and included infrastructure and technology as larger regional needs,” Steele said. Under the EDA CARES Act guidelines, projects had to show a direct COVID-19 economic impact and how the project will specifically help economic recovery. Unlike other disaster relief funding, communities had to go beyond the physical environment to consider the effects of job loss, community health, emergency management, technology needs, and drastic shifts in regional employment as part of their recovery strategy. CAPCOG provided assistance to communities seeking the funds that included coordinating calls with cities and engineers, defining environmental review processes, determining project eligibility and researching and providing economic analysis data for application narratives.
While the CARES Act grant has closed, other EDA funding is available for communities that meet the federal standard for economic distress.
Get more information on the traditional EDA Public Works grant.
Find other grant opportunities in which CAPCOG can assist with applications.
