Funds Are Designated for Health and Social Service Expenses Related to Superstorm Sandy Recovery
“These funds allow us to reinforce our social service infrastructure and ensure that, in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, health and other social services are reaching all of our residents who need them,” said Governor Chris Christie. “This infusion of funds will go directly to support services with a focus on health, mental health and children’s services, and provide an important supplement to our ongoing recovery-related social service initiatives and those proposed in our Community Development Block Grant Action, which is now before the federal government.”
The SSBG supplemental funding is allocated to the NJ Department of Human Services (DHS) and distributed among other state agencies for eligible expenditures.
“This funding is critical to rebuilding and preserving the social service safety net in the areas most impacted by Hurricane Sandy,” said DHS Commissioner Jennifer Velez. “In the months and years to come, these services will be essential to facilitating the state’s full recovery.”
Services funded by the SSBG supplemental will complement other recovery programs funded by Community Development Block Grants.
The SSBG Supplemental Funds are available for services directly related to Hurricane Sandy in one or more of five social services goals:
• Achieving or maintaining economic self-support to prevent, reduce, or eliminate dependency;
• Achieving or maintaining self-sufficiency, including reduction or prevention of dependency;
• Preventing or remedying neglect, abuse, or exploitation of children and adults unable to protect their own interests, or preserving, rehabilitating, or reuniting families;
• Preventing or reducing inappropriate institutional care by providing for community-based care, home-based care, or other forms of less intensive care; and
• Securing referral or admission for institutional care when other forms of care are not appropriate or providing services to individuals in institutions.
The chart below details the SSBG funding allocation among the eligible states:
State
|
Percentage Share Based on State FEMA Individual Assistance Registrants
|
Allocation
|
Connecticut
|
2.23%
|
$10,569,192
|
Maryland
|
0.25%
|
$1,185,675
|
New Jersey
|
47.80%
|
$226,794,105
|
New York
|
49.62%
|
$235,434,600
|
Rhode Island
|
0.11%
|
$516,428
|
Total
|
474,500,000
|