FEMA to reimburse funeral expenses for some families of COVID-19 victims, lawmakers say
By Robert Brodsky
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse families up to $7,000 for COVID-related burial and funeral expenses through a $2 billion national disaster fund, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced Monday.
The funding, which was included in the December coronavirus stimulus relief bill, includes about $260 million for New Yorkers — much of it intended for primarily low-income residents in neighborhoods at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, including Queens and Long Island.
“If you are a family that couldn’t afford or had to just stretch and went without rent or went without food or anything else so you might get your loved one a decent funeral and burial, you can get reimbursed for up to $7,000,” Schumer said at a news conference in Corona. ” … We are going to make sure that FEMA implements this well; that it is done in a way that is easy for families to apply and get the dollars.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a Queens Democrat whose district was among those hardest hit by the virus, said many low-income families could not afford funeral and burial costs, which can often exceed $10,000.
“While this pandemic was hitting all of us, and while we were all in the same storm, we were not in the same boat,” she said. “And some of us were in really choppy waters.
