{"id":2456536,"date":"2020-03-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323572"},"modified":"2020-03-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T06:00:00","slug":"close-to-1000-people-apply-for-covid-19-relief-in-aspen-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/close-to-1000-people-apply-for-covid-19-relief-in-aspen-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Close to 1,000 people apply for COVID-19 relief in Aspen area"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
An empty view of the Aspen pedestrian mall near Cooper Avenue, March 30, 2020. (Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

More than 800 people have applied to Pitkin County\u2019s COVID-19 financial relief program, with the majority of them being Aspen residents, according to Nan Sundeen, director of health and human services for the county.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council on Monday unanimously voted to appropriate $200,000<\/a> to the county fund, which is just around $1.3 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The county has ponied up $1 million and the town of Snowmass Village contributed $100,000 so far.<\/p>\n

Council members agreed during Monday\u2019s special meeting that much more will be required to help Aspen residents during this unprecedented crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are saying that the $2 trillion federal package is not going to be sufficient,\u201d Councilwoman Ann Mullins said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to need more money \u2026 clearly the ($200,000) is not enough money for what we\u2019re going to be facing in the next three months to three years, so the sooner we think about other sources of funds the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Rachel Richards suggested that the city borrow as much as $5 million from the Wheeler Opera House fund, which has roughly $30 million in reserves, for local economic relief.<\/p>\n

She also suggested that as much as $1 million be taken from the city\u2019s housing fund to provide rental relief<\/a> in municipal government-owned residential buildings, as well as those in the Aspen-Pitkin County Housing Authority inventory and the free-market units where local workers reside.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the magnitude of what we\u2019re dealing with has come into sharper relief over the past week,\u201d she said, referring to Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 stay-at-home public health order and President Donald Trump giving guidelines that restrict Americans\u2019 movement until April 30. \u201cSo we are all buckled in for a bumpy road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council and city staff will discuss Richards\u2019 proposal as early as next week.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, 58% of the applicants for the Pitkin County relief fund are city residents and 16% were from Snowmass Village, according to Sundeen.<\/p>\n

About $30,000 has been approved and of that, $25,000 has been doled out.<\/p>\n

Sundeen said the county is distributing an average of between $600 and $1,800 to individuals and households.<\/p>\n

\u201cEighty percent of that is for shelter,\u201d she said Monday. \u201cThere has been some for food and gas and debit cards for other expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Applicants\u2019 information is screened at three levels to determine eligibility and need.<\/p>\n

Without getting into specifics about the criteria used to determine who and how much, Sundeen said people seeking financial assistance are asked certain questions like whether they have three months of shelter saved up, or if they were self-sufficient prior to March 14 when public health orders went into effect, drastically reducing employment opportunities resulting from the impacts of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The county has hired temporary workers and upped its volunteer base to help expedite processing the applications.<\/p>\n

But still, it could take as long as a \u201cfew weeks to process,\u201d according to an email that Sundeen sent Friday to applicants. \u201cBe aware that someone will call you from a blocked phone number to conduct the required interview so please answer your phone to help expedite your request.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are calling people back as soon as we can,\u201d Sundeen said Monday.<\/p>\n

The financial relief is aimed at providing a bridge for local workers who are awaiting state and federal assistance, Sundeen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bridge to April, not April 1,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her email urged applicants to talk to their landlords in an attempt to negotiate a deferred payment until county relief eligibility is determined. Those with mortgages are urged to contact their mortgage lender to negotiate a deferred payment schedule.<\/p>\n

The email also points to websites for other financial aid, like the Colorado Department of Labor<\/a><\/i>, as well as local food banks<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s funds may be eligible for reimbursement in the future through state and federal relief packages; however, there is no guarantee, according to city officials.<\/p>\n

They acknowledged that the reimbursement processes also take time, while the need is immediate for the city\u2019s economically vulnerable residents.<\/p>\n

Sundeen said there have been no private donations made into the county relief fund.<\/p>\n

She added that the community embracing the COVID-19 crisis mantra of \u201cwe are all in this together\u201d motivates her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really appreciate the efforts of neighbor to neighbor,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s inspiring and keeps us going.\u201d<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An empty view of the Aspen pedestrian mall near Cooper Avenue, March 30, 2020. (Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times)Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times More than 800 people have applied to Pitkin County\u2019s COVID-19 financial relief program, with the majority of them being Aspen residents, according to Nan Sundeen, director of health and human services for the county. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 06:57:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}