Proposal Seeks Big Impact With Small Piece of Federal ARPA Grant

Milwaukee City Hall. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

In like a lion, out like a lamb. But not so quietly in this case.

The Common Council is on the verge of a deal with how to spend the remaining $1.75 million of its huge $394.2 million federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant.

The final funding allocation, which will receive its first public review Wednesday before the Finance & Personnel Committee, lacks the fanfare of the $179 million deal reached in late 2021 to spend the first tranche.

But the proposal’s sponsors, Council President José G. Pérez and Finance Committee Chair Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, believe the final proposal will still have a substantial impact.

“We want to leave the city after the pandemic relief rebuilt, stronger than it was before the pandemic,” said Dimitrijevic in an interview.

“We wanted to look at some of these programs that run out of money quickly and have some of the biggest impacts,” said Pérez.

That includes a down payment assistance program ($250,000) that provides grants to first-time homebuyers and Eviction Free MKE ($250,000) that provides legal representation to those facing evictions.

“And then with Your Move MKE ($200,000), we wanted someone somewhat out of the box that was doing good work in the community, directly with young people serving all ZIP codes,” said Pérez. The nonprofit provides youth outreach through hip hop, like break dancing classes and a chess-hip hop class. “They’re just doing some phenomenal work and they’re not on the regular rotation for funding.”

Funding would also be allocated to The Bridge Project ($350,000), which provides unconditional cash payments to up to 100 mothers. As Urban Milwaukee previously reported, the Zilber Family Foundation provided seed funding to bring the program to Milwaukee and the city’s contribution would extend the program.

Additional programs receiving funding include the Concordia 27 development on N. 27th Street ($500,000) and Courage MKE ($200,000). Courage provides LGBTQ+ youth with a safe and affirming space. It announced in 2023 that it is developing a new housing complex at 2030 W. National Ave.

The city is up against a tight timeline to advance the projects. ARPA regulations require the funding to be encumbered by the end of 2024. It can be spent through 2026, but the city can’t change what it is being spent on after the new year.

For the latest proposal, more than half of the funding is being freed up from prior proposals that administration officials don’t believe will be spent on time.

But approximately $800,000 would come by stripping the Environmental Collaboration Office of funding proposed for net zero energy, modular homes. Ald. Robert Bauman initially floated the idea of stripping the funding and, under the latest proposal, much of the funding would be reallocated to the Concordia 27 development in his district.

Pérez said he feels comfortable reallocating the funding because Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity recently received a $3.4 million grant to perform similar work. ECO had an earlier deal to build the modular homes that fell through, but is attempting to use the remaining funding to work with Habitat on demonstration homes.

Much like the 2021 deal, several of the proposals are ones that may not have enough political support on their own. But the pieces appear to fit together as a package the majority of the council will support.

According to a budget document, approximately two thirds of the COVID-19 triggered grant was ultimately used to fill budget holes. The council also allocated $25 million to lead abatement, $15 million to renovating 150 vacant homes, building a new Martin Luther King library branch, training child care providers, several affordable housing projects, expanding the Office of Violence Prevention (now the Office of Community Wellness) and $10 million to fix failing street lights.

You can do a lot, it turns out, with $394 million.