AOC, Chuck Schumer Launch COVID-19 Funeral Fund In Queens

QUEENS — The federal government will help families pay for COVID-19 related funeral and burial costs, Senator Chuck Schumer and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced Monday in Queens.

Starting today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will cover up to $9,000 of funeral expenses for people who died from COVID-19. Anyone who paid for multiple funerals can apply for up to $35,500 worth of funeral relief.

“We started fighting for burial relief a year ago, after Elmcor told us families were choosing between burying their loved ones with dignity and paying rent,” Representative Ocasio-Cortez tweeted earlier today, citing Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities, the Queens non-profit that was among the local advocates who pushed for the federal burial assistance.

“People depleted their entire savings” or put themselves into debt to cover funeral costs, Saeeda Dunston, executive director of Elmcor told The Washington Post.

Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez formally launched the program, which began taking applications over the phone at 9 a.m. this morning, in Corona, Queens — one of the city’s early epicenters of the pandemic, and part of Ocasio-Cortez’ 14th congressional district.

To apply for funeral assistance you can call 844-684-6333 — FEMA’s funeral assistance number — from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST, though many people on Twitter point out that the line is currently very busy.

In order to qualify for the FEMA fund you must be a U.S. citizen, a non-citizen national (a green card holder) or a qualified non-citizen (someone who has a visa with legal status) who paid for a COVID-19 related funeral after January 20 of last year.

There’s no requirement to prove the citizenship status of the person who died, but you will need to know the place and address of their death and their date of birth — as well as your own date of birth, plus your Social Security Number, address, telephone number, and bank information for a direct deposit, according to FEMA.

Also, after being given an application number over the phone, applicants will need to upload or mail documents to FEMA, including funeral expense documents and an official death certificate that indicates that the person you buried died from coronavirus, reported CityLimits in their guide of how to apply for COVID-19 funeral assistance funds.

“Many localities are amending death certificates now because of all the confusion in the early days of COVID,” Representative Ocasio-Cortez pointed out on Twitter, adding that New Yorkers can start the process of amending death certificates by calling 311.

Read more about the funeral relief program here.