Over $40,000 taken from $66 million for Utahn homeowners needing COVID relief

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Over $40,000 has been taken off the top of the $66 million dollar Homeowner’s Assistance Fund bucket while it's been waiting to be dispersed to Utahns in need since February.

2News Investigates sent out a freedom of information request to see exactly what those purchases have gone towards.

Less than $100 has been spent on miscellaneous items like business cards, a cell phone cover and a criminal background check for the person hired to be the program’s director.

Over $700 was taken by Verizon Wireless between September 2021 and August this year in cell phone fees for that director.

$120 was put towards advertising for public comments in the paper in March.

The department’s old website for the program had said it was “under development” since March, although expenses show over two thousand dollars being given to a company in July to produce the new website which debuted in early September.

$5,800 was billed automatically off the top as a percentage that the department as a whole takes from all of its programs

And most of the expenditure goes to the program director’s salary, at just over $31,000, which had been paid from October through June of 2022.

Workforce Services told 2News Investigates they have had two program directors since they received the funds. One left the position during the year at an undisclosed time for an undisclosed reason and another one was hired in their place over the summer.

When asked if there would be less of an expense had the program taken less time to roll out, the department said yes, but the amount of time it takes to put together assistance programs varies.

The program is finally expected to be accepting applications starting October 16.