City Chatter: Every last drop of ARPA funding
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Welcome back to our weekly city policy roundup.
💰 Clock ticking on pandemic dollars: Detroit got $827 million in federal relief funds in 2021 to help its recovery from the long-lasting economic impacts of COVID-19. Programs have ranged from affordable housing to homelessness services and job skills.
- Now, the deadline for spending all that cash is nearing: Dec. 31 this year. So far, $735 million has been spent, per a May 8 letter to City Council.
- City leaders don't want to lose a dollar, so they requested council permission to reassign some of the funding to new uses if a project finished with leftovers. Council approved the resolution.
Who's getting a cash influx? Grow Detroit's Young Talent, a summer youth employment program, will get an extra $5 million. That's coming from a variety of previous sources, including alley infrastructure and blight clean-up.
- The Mt. Elliott Senior Center construction project would get $300,000.
- If extra money is identified, per the letter to City Council, it could be used for purposes including emergency shelter beds, park benches and tables, and down payment assistance.
🚧 Dirt delays continue: City Council members continued Tuesday to push back on a $3.5 million contract increase for soil testing at potentially contaminated demolition sites.
- City Council President James Tate is among members who want a conversation with city officials about the "totality" of the situation, instead of "piecemeal" contracts that need approval ASAP with little discussion.
- City officials responded that they want to investigate and resolve the contamination as quickly as possible, but were OK postponing in order to have a closed-door meeting with council on the controversial topic.
Catch up quick: The city says a former contractor, who is now suing the city, used contaminated dirt to fill vacant lots in home tear-downs.