PRINCESS ANNE — Meals on Wheels and a housing counseling service offered by SHORE UP! Inc. will benefit from over $200,000 in unspent emergency rental assistance funds that continue to flow into Somerset County.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the county has received three different allotments to help those unable to pay their rent or facing eviction because of adverse effects of the coronavirus.

Of the $360,000 in hand some $135,000 has been spent.

Now there is a fourth round which totals $1,841,271 and must be spent by Sept. 30, 2022. “We don’t know if we’ll spend that much money,” said Gary Pusey, director of Technical and Community Services, so the state is allowing the former grants to be reallocated “to other eligible uses.”

The Commission on Aging, which operates a food delivery program to senior citizens, will receive $191,197 to makeup a budget shortfall and SHORE UP! will use $24,000 for housing counseling to county residents. “We’re really confident we won’t spend that money” for emergency rental assistance, Mr. Pusey said. “This will stay in Somerset County.”

Ashley Bedsworth, who along with Marcus Murray oversee rental assistance applications, said the application is on the county website and at their office in the County Office Complex. There are also applications at District Court, the Seton Center and Social Services.