Providence City Council to consider $124M in ARPA spending

THE PROVIDENCE CITY COUNCIL will take up recommendations on how to spend its remaining $123.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds based on a report submitted by the COVID-19 Recovery and Resiliency Task Force. /PBN FILE PHOTO/CHRIS BERGENHEIM

PROVIDENCE – Addressing the housing crisis topped the list of priorities for how the city should spend its remaining funding under the American Rescue Plan Act, according to the Providence COVID-19 Recovery and Resiliency Task Force.

The task force’s final report, slated to be introduced before the City Council Thursday night, outlines broad areas of spending for the remaining $123.8 million in ARPA funds. Among the largest chunks, $27.5 million, should fund housing and homelessness programs, including shelters, increasing affordable housing stock and long-term homelessness prevention and housing stabilization programs, according to the report.

Angela Bannerman Ankoma, co-chair of the task force who also serves as executive director of equity leadership for the Rhode Island Foundation, said the pandemic exacerbated the existing housing crisis faced by city residents, and that the problem “overwhelmingly rose to the top” of the priority list.

Another $30 million should be spent filling revenue gaps in the city budget, while $7.3 million would go to business and economic development.

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Other funding areas and amounts are:

  • $14.4 million for youth and community investments
  • $11.8 million for racial equity
  • $10.3 million for city services and infrastructure
  • $10.1 million for arts, culture and tourism
  • $8.5 million for sustainability
  • $3.5 million for administration costs of the stimulus funds 

The totals do not include $42.8 million of ARPA funds the city doled out earlier this year to fill budget gaps and support programs, including grants for small businesses and continuation of WaterFire Providence. 

Across categories, the report emphasized the need to make spending decisions with racial equity in mind, “centering not just those hardest hit by COVID-19 but those who have been disenfranchised by structural and historic racism and discrimination.”

The recommendations reflect results of more than 1,000 surveys and a host of community and business meetings that collectively gathered input from more than 2,000 residents, according to the report. Opportunity for public feedback from a broad and diverse group of city residents and business owners was the intent behind the task force, which was created by a resolution introduced by Councilwoman Nirva LaFortune and approved by the council.

LaFortune, who was one of 14 people who served on the task force, contrasted the community-led approach for these recommendations with the way the council spent the initial tranche of ARPA funds earlier this year. The $42.8 million funding plan was opposed by six of eight council members, including LaFortune, who cited lack of opportunity for public feedback as a reason for their opposition.

“These are public dollars so we need a public process,” LaFortune said in an interview on Wednesday.

Of the recommendations, she added, “This is an opportunity for the city to really listen to what the community is saying.”

But what the full council will do with the recommendations is unclear. After being introduced at the council meeting Thursday night, the report will head to the City Finance Committee for further discussion and review, said Council President John J. Igliozzi.

Igliozzi on Wednesday said he expected the final spending plan to be “pared down” from the initial recommendations. While the task force’s recommendations did not exceed the expected amount of ARPA funds, many of the programs or projects suggested would require more than the initial injection of stimulus funds to keep running, Igliozzi said.

“We have to be financially judicious in how we handle the money,” he said. 

Nor does he expect the spending plan to be finalized soon. 

“It’s not so much that this is a sprint to spend money in a spendthrift way,” Igliozzi said. “It is a marathon to make sure we spend this in a responsible way.”

In response to Igliozzi’s comments, Ankoma reiterated the importance of the recommendations as a reflection of the community.

“We tried to be authentic to the needs of the community in our report,” she said. “When you are asked for feedback and you feel like your opinion has been included, I think it helps all of us to be moving in the same direction.”

The report recommends that the council hold public hearings throughout the process to advance a final spending plan. It also suggested the task force continue to meet to help oversee and develop more concrete plans for how to spend the money based on its broad-strokes recommendations.

Federal law requires the funds be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.

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