The Federal Emergency Management Agency is offering up to $9,000 in financial relief for funeral expenses of those who died of COVID-19.
Over 1,200 Granite Staters have lost their lives to COVID, and their families may stand to qualify for the aid.
Buddy Phaneuf is the president of Phaneuf Funeral Homes and Crematorium, which has six locations in New Hampshire and Vermont. The business has assisted around 280 families of people who died from COVID-19.
Phaneauf says while most who died of COVID were older, and their families may have already been expecting a funeral in the coming years, for others, the death was completely unplanned for and caused financial hardship.
“Families were scrambling around trying to get funding, trying to create a GoFundMe or tap into their 401k," Phaneauf says, "Those are the families, I think this is going to help even more, the ones that really didn't have it anticipated.”
Phaneauf says his business will soon be reaching out to clients to let them know about the assistance, which opens April 12, and help them gather documents needed for an application.
The FEMA call line for the program is 844-684-6333.
Subscribe to NHPR's coronavirus newsletter for more COVID-19 news in N.H.
