Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and the City of Springfield American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) team announced today that Public Partnerships, LLC (PPL) of Boston, MA, has been selected by the city to act as the third party to take over reviewing the eligibility and awarding process of pending ARPA Direct Cash Household Assistance applications. PPL has sent out notices to all submitted applicants informing households that they will be reviewing their applications for determination of eligibility.
PPL has established a call center which residents can call to check in on the status of their pending APRA Direct Cash Household Assistance application. The PPL call center will operate Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, EST. They can also be contacted by email at ARPA_PPL_CS@pcgus.com or by phone at (855) 388-4089.
To date, the city of Springfield has awarded over 3,000 households totaling over $4 million in direct cash assistance to residents. Over 19,000 applications for direct cash assistance had been received.
PPL was selected as the third party to assist the city in expediting the reviewing process of the heavy volume of direct cash assistance applications, while also adhering to all federal rules and requirements for awarding direct cash assistance and to guard against fraud and applications from non-Springfield households.
Mayor Sarno states, “I want to thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding as we continue to carefully and thoroughly review all of the applications we have received. We received a tremendous volume of applications, over 19,000. To help expedite the reviewing process and to ease the workload upon my dedicated city finance team, my administration has selected PPL to act as the third party to assist in reviewing and awarding all pending direct cash assistance applications. All communications and determination of eligibility will be through them, on behalf the city. I want to encourage residents who have applied and want to check in on the status of their application to contact PPL through the contact info they have provided.”
“I am proud of the fact that my administration has been the only one in the Commonwealth and one of the few in the nation to put forth such a comprehensive and all-encompassing initiative to get our local federal ARPA funding directly into the community,” said Mayor Sarno. “This has been a long and arduous process as we determine eligibility to adhere to all federal requirements and guard against potential fraudulent requests.”
The city of Springfield opened applications for ARPA assistance in November 2021 and closed the application program on January 15, 2023.
Original source can be found here.
