American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

American Recovery Plan

The City of Spokane has received over $80 million in recovery funds as part of the Federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The City has established a working group that will develop and implement partnerships with City Departments, other government entities, and nonprofit organizations for the effective delivery of funds to the community in alignment with the requirements of the (ARPA). As part of this process, it is important that we hear the community's ideas and suggestions on how we allocate and spend recovery dollars.

Areas of Funding Focus

A framework for allocating these funds, adopted by City Council in Resolution 2021-0080, establishes that the federal recovery funds will be allocated with four main purposes:

Purpose 1: Replenish lost City government revenues due to the pandemic to drive catalytic investments and to restore COVID-curtailed services that will move the city forward and increase our resiliency.

Purpose 2: Reach out to community partner organizations to fund initiatives that will remedy the damage caused by the pandemic with investments that will support future growth and opportunities.

Purpose 3: Resiliency for Spokane – as we bounce back, we must make significant investments in forward-thinking initiatives that will create long-term, sustainable growth, and stability for the City of Spokane and all its community members; and

Purpose 4: Relief for residents and businesses that have been left behind by other relief programs.

Resolution 2021-0080
Resolution 2021-0045 (PDF 864 KB)

Council Approved ARPA Funding

The City Council declared that an urgency and emergency exist for adopting ordinances for the City of Spokane, allocating funding for first-out programs from the American Rescue Plan Act. A subsequent request for proposals (RFPs) for each item will follow, allowing the public to submit proposals and apply for funding.

Council has voted and approved the following items:

$6,000,000 - affordable housing projects in the city
$2,000,000 - down payment assistance program for first-time homeowners with incomes below 80 percent of average median income
$1,000,000 - sub-area planning to increase housing along transportation corridors
$300,000 - eviction legal defense and education program in the city
$1,000,000 - funding to childcare providers
$1,000,000 - employment support in the arts
$1,500,000 - play equipment and bathroom upgrades in city parks, prioritizing parks located in the lowest income census tracts
$400,000 - construction pre-apprenticeship educational program targeted towards individuals involved in, or at risk of being involved in, the criminal justice system
$300,000 - Equity Navigator Service to aid the City in ensuring that funds spent will serve our diverse and historically underserved communities to be spent before 12/31/2024
$2,000,000 – ARPA-focused Projects of Citywide Significance
$1,500,000 – Permit fee reimbursement for attainable housing
$900,000 – Reimbursement of marketing and police/fire costs for downtown cultural events
$3,500,000 – Homeless services capital and operational costs
$1,200,000 – Mobile medical clinics
$3,000,000 – Youth behavioral health services and interventions

Ordinance C36163 (PDF 910 KB)
Ordinance C36176 (PDF 1.2 MB)

Equity Statement

The City of Spokane is committed to equitably and effectively utilizing ARP resources to help our community bounce back as soon as we can and in the best way possible. To do this we look to fund organizations and businesses that take into consideration past inequities and will go forward to honor the expertise, relationships, and resilience within communities of color and those historically impacted by inequities providing them with lasting partnerships and co-created solutions to eliminate systemic hardships.

Community Input

Community feedback was instrumental in helping to guide our decisions in funding priorities to move us toward economic empowerment and recovery for Spokane. Through our ThoughtExchange platform, we captured over 2,700 ideas and thoughts, with an impressive 45,900 rankings of these ideas, proving that your opinions matter. This word cloud illustrates the most significant ideas and thoughts to emerge from our ThoughtExchange and was used in consideration for the funding process.