The City of Kenai is requesting who people who applied for housing relief through the city’s CARES Act program check their voicemail and email for correspondence so they do not lose out on their aid.

The program is offered by the city in partnership with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. According to a Tuesday city release, 421 households had applied for rent or mortgage relief as of last week.

Application review, verification and payment process are being run by AHFC and their Anchorage-based contractor Catholic Social Services, according to the release. AHFC verifies that the applicant resides in Kenai and a Catholic Social Services caseworker calls or emails the applicant to complete the process.

According to the release, the housing assistance caseworker had been unable to reach almost 50 applicants living in Kenai, either because no one answered the phone or the email.

Kenai City Manager Paul Ostrander encouraged applicants to respond to program correspondence as quickly as possible. Specifically, Ostrander said to look out for calls from phone numbers with a 360 area code or emails from someone at cssalaska.org.

Applicants need to respond in order to receive the aid they applied for. Because the federal deadline for CARES Act money to be spent is Dec. 30 of this year, the city is trying to get all payments out quickly.

For more information on the City of Kenai’s rent and mortgage relief program, visit https://www.kenaihousingrelief.org/.

Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.