Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration will change how roughly $80 million in federal pandemic {dollars} get spent within the coming months to make sure the town doesn’t lose any cash for not spending it by the 2026 deadline, officers stated Monday.
Some packages may even see their American Rescue Plan Act funding scaled again or canceled so different initiatives higher aligned with Johnson’s imaginative and prescient can as an alternative get the cash, administration officers informed reporters in a briefing. That features beginning again up the assured earnings program launched throughout Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tenure, however nixing her administration’s plans for a sobering middle and help for low-barrier homeless shelters run by outdoors businesses.
Following the failure of the Johnson-backed Convey Chicago Dwelling poll referendum that may have raised cash for homeless companies, the proposal additionally requires a slight funding increase for a fast rehousing plan to assist these experiencing homelessness.
Chicago obtained $1.9 billion in ARPA funds through the coronavirus pandemic. Underneath federal guidelines, metropolis and state ARPA beneficiaries should obligate all of their funds by the top of 2024 and spend them by the top of 2026. Johnson administration officers stated formal bulletins about what the shifts can pay for will occur within the coming days.
To this point, the town has laid out the way it plans to spend 88% of its ARPA {dollars} and spent 79%, Price range Director Annette Guzman informed reporters.
A good portion of the roughly $234 million in unobligated funds are purported to be devoted to neighborhood initiatives.
Guzman stated since Johnson took workplace, employees took a recent take a look at deliberate spending and determined to additionally shift roughly $80 million in obligated, unspent funding away from packages the place there was a “excessive threat” {dollars} wouldn’t make it out the door by the deadline. A number of of the 21 high-risk packages could have their funding lowered, as will a small variety of medium-risk packages.
Solely two packages will likely be scrapped: a deliberate $5 million sobering middle — a spot for intoxicated individuals to sober up in as an alternative choice to an emergency room or jail cell — and $500,000 to help outdoors teams operating “low barrier” homeless shelters. Such shelters would have included storage models for possessions and locations for these experiencing homelessness to maintain their pets.
Town has “been unable to discover a program administrator” for the sobering middle regardless of having put out requests for proposals, Guzman stated. She stated officers don’t consider they might discover an administrator for the low-barrier shelters earlier than the top of this 12 months, both.
Town will double down on what they’ve dubbed low-risk packages the place it’s best to get cash within the fingers of beneficiaries. That features $32 million to relaunch the town’s assured earnings program, by which low-income households would obtain month-to-month $500 no-strings-attached funds.
In comparison with the budgeted quantities within the metropolis’s 2023 ARPA efficiency report, the town’s fast rehousing program — which helps homeless households transferring from a shelter or the road to everlasting housing — would see a roughly $5 million improve, to $32 million.
Different packages getting a lift: Tourism and hospitality restoration would obtain an extra $3.5 million; the artist aid and works fund would see an extra $2 million; and the town’s initiative to spice up capability at psychological well being service suppliers would obtain an extra $1.8 million.
aquig@chicagotribune.com
