Georgia Interagency Council for the Homeless; create

Backup generator grants for Georgia rural hospitals

Georgia’s Department of Community Health must establish grants to help eligible rural hospitals buy or install backup generators. These grants support continued patient care during emergencies. Hospitals must be nonprofit, provide acute care, and have fewer than 100 beds. Their county must have fewer than 50,000 residents under the 2020 census or a future decennial census. In counties with a military base or installation, military personnel and their dependents are excluded from that count. Hospitals must be in a region where the Governor declared a state of emergency after July 1, 2024. They must have lacked a backup generator when the law took effect and received no federal help to buy or install one. Funding depends on state appropriations or other available money, including federal funds; the law sets no funding total. The department sets grant rules and chooses recipients in consultation with Georgia’s emergency management and homeland security agency. It sets each award amount case by case. The law took effect upon the Governor’s approval or upon becoming law without approval.