PROVIDENCE — Mayor Jorge Elorza has unveiled a proposal for spending more than $123 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, aiming to allocate large amounts on housing, reparations and replacement of lost hospitality tax dollars.
On Wednesday, Elorza announced his budget ordinance, which would spend more than $28 million on housing and homelessness, giving $17 million to affordable housing development and the remainder to categories including emergency housing, home repair, rapid rehousing and counsel.
Under the ordinance, nearly $28 million would go toward “revenue recovery,” to replace lost hotel-tax and meal-tax dollars, for example. The mayor is asking that any funds not ultimately reserved to recover lost revenue be used on “structural overhead challenges.”
How will the ARPA funds be spent?
If approved, the ordinance would stipulate how most of the roughly $166 million in total ARPA funds given to the city are used.
About $43 million was allocated in July, with $19.5 million earmarked for revenue recovery. Other spending areas included anti-violence initiatives, the Roger Williams Park Gateway project and small-business relief.
Amy Russo, The Providence JournalWed, January 5, 2022, 5:15 PM·3 min readIn this article:
PROVIDENCE — Mayor Jorge Elorza has unveiled a proposal for spending more than $123 million in American Rescue Plan Act money, aiming to allocate large amounts on housing, reparations and replacement of lost hospitality tax dollars.
On Wednesday, Elorza announced his budget ordinance, which would spend more than $28 million on housing and homelessness, giving $17 million to affordable housing development and the remainder to categories including emergency housing, home repair, rapid rehousing and counsel.
Under the ordinance, nearly $28 million would go toward “revenue recovery,” to replace lost hotel-tax and meal-tax dollars, for example. The mayor is asking that any funds not ultimately reserved to recover lost revenue be used on “structural overhead challenges.”
How will the ARPA funds be spent?
If approved, the ordinance would stipulate how most of the roughly $166 million in total ARPA funds given to the city are used.
About $43 million was allocated in July, with $19.5 million earmarked for revenue recovery. Other spending areas included anti-violence initiatives, the Roger Williams Park Gateway project and small-business relief.
Elorza identified hospitality as an area in which the recovery funds could be used, though he differentiated it from the $7.7 million his ordinance would immediately allocate to that industry, along with arts and tourism.
The $7.7 million would go toward cultural facilities, events, PVDFest, tourism marketing, and the Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau.
he other proposed spending categories are as follows: $15 million for racial equity, $12.5 million for city services and infrastructure, about $12.2 million for youth and community initiatives, $12 million for sustainability, $5.3 million for business and economic development and $3 million for the administration of the ARPA funds .
cross categories, Elorza is aiming to earmark $14 million for greater Kennedy Plaza area improvements, including a redesign and flood resiliency.
Inequities program to be cre
Within the racial equity category, the mayor is proposing $10 million for a COVID-19 inequities program that has yet to be defined.
“We’re not going to prescribe what the program looks like at this point,” said city spokeswoman Theresa Agonia, adding that the city wants to empower a public body that will be created to determine how to spend the funds.
Elorza said the body would generate recommendations on “how to address disparate impacts of COVID-19 due to structural racism and provide reparation to impacted individuals.”
The budget ordinance, which is subject to approval by City Council, was created with recommendations from the city’s COVID-19 Recovery and Resiliency Task Force.
The task force conducted a 90-day community engagement process, including surveying more than 1,000 Providence residents. Half live in zip codes 02907 and 02909, which were among the areas of the city hardest hit by the pandemic.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Providence Mayor Elorza proposes using ARPA funds toward inequities
