AVCP opens comment on $14.5 million Y-K Delta aid plan through Nov. 13

The Association of Village Council Presidents opened comment Tuesday on its $14.5 million plan for cash assistance, heating help and child care covering 2027 through 2029, with families across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta having until Nov. 13 to weigh in. AVCP is a tribal consortium of 56 federally recognized tribes serving 27,000 people across 48 communities in the delta. The plan keeps the same budget as the current 2024-2026 plan.

A federal law lets tribes combine job training, education, child care and family assistance programs from several federal agencies into one plan, and AVCP's plan does that for programs from the Interior Department, the Labor Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. Tribal TANF, tribe-run cash aid for needy families, is the largest share at about $5.4 million, with administration and indirect costs taking $2.36 million. The plan allows AVCP to use up to 25 percent of the combined money each year for economic development. The Interior Department approves or rejects such plans after federal agency review.

The plan cites July 2026 unemployment of 10.7 percent in the Bethel Census Area and 21 percent in Kusilvak, compared with a statewide rate of 4.3 percent. It says the Yukon and Kuskokwim commercial salmon fishery "is almost non-existent," and that losing both fishing income and traditional food has pushed more families to seek help with the cost of living and energy just to meet basic needs.

Cash assistance tops out at $821 a month for a child living with a needy parent or relative, with $102 for each additional child; other cases carry separate maximums. Families qualify with income at or below 185 percent of the state cash aid program's standard and can have no more than $2,000 in countable resources. There is a 60-month limit, but months spent in a village where at least half the adults are unemployed do not count toward it.

Heating help goes to households under 150 percent of the federal poverty level, with benefits from $10 to $2,000. People already receiving SSI, TANF or SNAP qualify automatically. Crisis help runs Oct. 1 to May 31.

Comments can be emailed to Sam Crow at [email protected] or mailed to AVCP's Workforce Development Division in Bethel. A public hearing is Oct. 20, noon to 1 pm, at the Tugkar Building in Bethel, by phone at 907-543-7404 and on Microsoft Teams. If approved, the plan takes effect Jan. 1.