New county program could cover car repair costs for residents. Check your eligibility
A new program in Centre County will pay for vehicle repair costs related to COVID-19.
The program will pay for vehicle repairs not to exceed Kelley Blue Book value of the vehicle, for low-to-moderate income residents of Centre County, excluding those in the State College Borough. The need for assistance must be related to COVID-19, such as employment loss, loss of work hours or medical bills.
Centre Helps, the administer of the program, will conduct a full income intake to determine if a resident is eligible, meeting the low-to-moderate income guideline for Community Development Block Grants, and they’ll collect proof of ownership for the vehicle. The payment for the repair will be made directly to the repair shop. The resident can’t make a profit from the repair, so they must keep the vehicle for the six months following.
The program is funded through Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus Response money. In 2020, Centre Volunteers in Medicine received the grant to do COVID-19 testing for low-to-moderate income residents in Centre County. During the May 31 Centre County Commissioners meeting, Mitzi Gallagher-Long, project coordinator at SEDA Council of Governments, said when projects were due at the time, protocols on how to deal with the pandemic had not been rolled out yet. But by the time the state Department of Community and Economic Development contracted and moved forward with the projects, the state Department of Health had set up a testing site in the county.
“So CVIM chose not to proceed with their project and expend the funds because they believe that the Department of Health’s site is meeting the needs of your residents. So that left a $10,000 allocation that needed to be modified,” Gallagher-Long said.
During the same time frame, Centre Helps said they wouldn’t be able to fully use their Rent Mortgage Utility Assistance Program. They suggested using those funds for a car repair program, which many of their sister organizations have done successfully.
“They are hearing from their clients this need to repair vehicles brought on because of COVID, different reasons being that you have residents who lost weeks, hours, months sometimes because of pandemic mitigation that occurred, you also have residents who had contracted COVID lost work time there, maybe have medical bills because of COVID,” Gallagher-Long said. “So now they have a vehicle that they can’t pay for a repair. For example, they need brakes, the car is not going to pass inspection, they can’t pay for it because they’re trying to catch up on all their bills, … groceries have increased, etc.”
For Bellefonte borough residents, $58,000 is available for the program. For Centre County residents — excluding those living in the Bellefonte or State College boroughs — $38,000 is available.
For more information, contact the Centre Helps 24/7 hotline, 814-237-5855. Hotline counselors will review the eligibility criteria with residents before transferring them to case managers, who will conduct a full income intake to determine family income eligibility for funds, according to a press release.
