Pinellas CARES

COVID-19 financial relief for individuals, community & businesses

Thousands of individuals, families and businesses have received direct financial assistance through Pinellas CARES.

Individual and business assistance programs are now closed to new applications. Learn more about other help available in the community.  

Individuals & Families

Rent, mortgage and utility assistance up to $5,000 per household for overdue bills since March 1, 2020. This program is now closed to new applications


Due to the widespread impact of the pandemic on our local community, this program is experiencing a high volume of requests. Payments will be made directly to the landlord, lender or utility company and may take several weeks to arrive from the time documents are submitted for review.


Local Business Grants

Grants up to $10,000 for Pinellas-based businesses most affected by the pandemic: generally, those that were required to shut down or whose customers were required to shut down or stop doing business.

This program is no longer accepting applications. For further resources and assistance, please visit www.pced.org/Covid19Loans or contact the Florida Small Business Development Center at Pinellas County at businesshelp@pinellascounty.org or phone (727) 453-7200 (Mon.-Fri. 8a – 5p).

More program  details: https://covid19.pinellascounty.org/pinellascaresbusiness

Eviction Help

Florida’s eviction moratorium has expired, but help is available through Pinellas CARES to resolve eviction through legal mediation. If you are overdue on your rent, don’t wait until you get an eviction notice to seek help.

Facing eviction? Know your rights – Read Gulfcoast Legal Services’ Tenant Rights guide.

You can also learn more about possible protections under the CDC’s Temporary Halt in Evictions

Workforce Training

Pinellas CARES is supporting new training programs for local workers who lost their job due to COVID-19 through a new CareerSource Pinellas program.

The new PinellasWorks programs provide on-the-job training opportunities, direct job placement, short-term occupational skills training certifications and other services. The program also offers qualifying businesses 100 percent reimbursement for costs of training new employees.

For more information, visit www.careersourcepinellas.com/pinellasworks.

Nonprofit Organizations

For the community: Support for nonprofits that provide critical services & investments in countywide COVID-19 response.

Through a partnership between Pinellas County government and Pinellas Community Foundation, $29.7 million will be available to support nonprofit organizations to cover increased demand for supplies and programs resulting from the impacts of COVID-19.

  • Program will focus on nonprofit agencies that provide community services in the areas of food, homelessness, behavioral health, and legal aid for housing.
  • Grant approvals will be overseen by local committees including representatives from Pinellas County, PCF Board of Governors and other local partners. 
  • Application: www.pinellascf.org/CARES

    Agencies needing application support can contact a member of the PCF team at 727-531-0058. Questions? See Frequently Asked Questions.

Child Care Providers

Through a partnership between Pinellas County and the Early Learning Coalition of Pinellas County (ELC), $4.6 million will be available to help child care organizations whose business was negatively impacted due to COVID-19. The Pinellas CARES Child Care Program will provide one-time grants of up to $10,000 to cover expenses such as employee wages, vendor bills, rent, and health and safety investments.

Applicants must be licensed, located in Pinellas County, and open and serving children at the time of application.  ELC will contact all eligible providers directly via email with application instructions. Eligible providers that do not receive an email or need assistance applying can contact the ELC at 727-400-4436 or ceckrem@elcpinellas.org. Applications will be accepted starting Friday, August 7, through October 2, 2020, at 11:59 p.m.

Questions? See Frequently Asked Questions.

Pinellas CARES Background

Pinellas County received $170 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to address the community’s most pressing needs related to COVID-19.

In addition to the above programs, Pinellas CARES also supports several other countywide initiatives, including: bolstering local pandemic response through increasing local capacity for testing, contact tracing, skilled nursing, personal protective equipment (PPE), community health educators, and other public health measures, workforce reemployment programs and support for nonprofit arts organizations.

The County developed the above programs based on broad public input, including an online community conversation and a survey that garnered 1,114 responses.

CARES & COVID-19 Expenditures