HOUSTON (AP) – The Houston City Council has approved a relief fund that will provide thousands of residents struggling financially during the coronavirus pandemic with a one-time $1,200 payment that can be used for rent, food or other needs.
The program, approved on Wednesday and to be paid for by nearly $30 million in federal funding from the CARES Act, is expected to help up to 23,000 households.
Houston joins other cities in Texas and across the country who have given their residents money – similar to stimulus checks the federal government issued earlier this year – to help them through economic hardships they’ve suffered during the pandemic. 
The Houston area has only recovered about 50% of the jobs that were lost at the start of the pandemic, according to the Greater Houston Partnership, a local business group. The city was also hit hard by this year’s oil downturn..
Houston joins other cities in Texas and across the country that have given their residents money — similar to stimulus checks the federal government issued earlier this year — to help them through economic hardships they’ve suffered during the pandemic. On Tuesday, officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced residents could apply for $2,000 grants for families dealing with financial hardships.
In Dallas, millions of dollars allocated from the CARES Act for rental assistance still sits unused. Housing advocates are trying to get the word out before the money has to be returned to the federal government.
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Meantime in Washington, Democratic leaders have swung behind a bipartisan COVID-19 relief effort. They’re cutting their demands for a $2 trillion-plus measure by more than half in hopes of breaking a months long logjam and delivering much-sought aid at the end of a tempestuous congressional session.
It’s aimed at budging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who so far has been unwilling to abandon a $550 million Senate GOP plan that has failed twice this fall.
The new plan would establish a $300 per week jobless benefit, send $160 billion to help state and local governments, revive popular “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses, and bail out transit systems and airlines.
