By KATELYNN WINEBRENNER
Photo Credit: Bode Ramsay
The City of College Park, since receiving almost $22 million in federal pandemic funding in 2021 and 2022, has spent the money to help residents pay bills, subsidize local businesses and invest in affordable housing.
The city received these funds through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, a pandemic-era economic stimulus measure. The U.S. Department of the Treasury gave $350 billion in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to governments across the country to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Without question, that was something unprecedented in the City of College Park,” College Park City Councilmember Stuart Adams (District 3) said.
Adams said the council decided to “substantially allocate” and spend most of the federal funding by fiscal year 2024. The city so far has spent $19 million and must use the remaining $3 million by December 31, 2026.
Across the country, cities of all sizes received a collective $65.1 billion, according to Julia Bauer, the research and data analysis program manager for the National League of Cities.
“I think a lot of people were very excited at the beginning of this whole project,” Bauer said. “We found less than 1% of cities declined funds, so for the most part, it was something that people were very happy to receive.”
Initially, most cities focused on public health, purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and sanitizer, Bauer said. College Park spent about $95,600 on PPE and on enforcing rules to prevent large gatherings, according to city data. It also gave $375,000 in assistance to the Berwyn Heights, Branchville and College Park fire departments.
“They played an absolutely critical role in addressing COVID and recovering from COVID,” Adams said. “Not only do they provide fire service, but their [emergency medical technician] ambulatory services, that’s really, absolutely critical to the health and safety of College Park.”
The Treasury also authorized use of funds for other expenses that were not directly health related. Governments were allowed to use money for economic programs, financial assistance and infrastructure.
Mayor Fazlul Kabir said the city council focused on using ARPA funds to help residents and to restart the local economy.
To achieve this, one of the city’s main focal points was helping small businesses, nonprofits and the tourism industry.
Small businesses saw the most of that group, receiving $1.7 million. On average, each business that applied and was approved received $20,000, according to the city’s economic development department director, Michael Williams. The city also allocated $62,350 to nonprofit organizations.
“The word throughout the ARPA process was always impact,” Williams said. “Were they severely impacted? Did businesses close up? Did they basically lose their employees?”
Williams added: “During COVID, we were able to help financially, but the [small business] owners also came out and became a little bit more open about what their challenges are. We actually got a better relation with many of the owners, big or small.”
The tourism and hospitality industry received $450,000 in grants. The Hotel, the Holiday Inn, and other hotels and some restaurants throughout the city received this aid.
The Hotel “is a vibrant hotel that we want to succeed because the economics make really good sense for College Park,” Adams said. “When that hotel succeeds, it brings in a lot of tax dollars, both property tax and occupancy tax.”
In addition, the city used some of the $10 million it received in ARPA recovery funds to bring new restaurants, like Iron Rooster and GrillmarX, to College Park. Both restaurants are in the retail space on the street-level floor of The Hotel.
The city was allowed to spend this money where officials deemed it was necessary, as long as it was within the Treasury’s allotted time frame, according to Adams.
The other main focus for the city, according to Kabir, was helping families and individuals with financial struggles by funding free food services, offering financial assistance for rent and utilities, or creating or bringing new jobs to the city.
Food services, like Meals on Wheels and the College Park Community Food Bank, received $1 million of assistance from the city.
The city also offered a little more than $250,000 in emergency assistance to households struggling to pay rent or utility bills.
Some 86 households received assistance, according to Gary Fields, director of the city’s Department of Finance. On average, the city paid about $3,000 to each of those households for expenses like past-due rent, mortgage payments, utilities, car payments and medical bills, Fields said.
In light of those struggles, the city also offered up to $5,000 to compensate residents who sought mental health services. Almost $55,000 worth of the funds were allocated for this purpose.
The city also invested the money in affordable housing initiatives, including renovations at Attick Towers, an apartment building for senior citizens, for $1.25 million.
“Just as the pandemic exacerbated some issues, it showcased the need to upgrade those facilities,” Adams said. “That’s to support some of our most vulnerable and affordable housing in College Park.”
Along the same lines, the city invested $3 million in the College Park Community Preservation Trust, a land trust organized by the College Park City-University Partnership that finds and buys local homes to resell at an affordable price to income-eligible households.
“We’re excited because this is part of the goal we have to bring affordable housing to College Park,” Kabir said.
The city also spent $639,709 on infrastructure, including a stormwater assessment project.
“The purpose was to invest in things like building sidewalks and making new projects that would be creating jobs and bringing jobs to the local community,” Kabir said.
Improving infrastructure could help to negate harmful impacts of the pandemic, Adams said. Families that struggled during the pandemic might have a harder time recovering from potential flood damage, for example, he said.
“I think the whole point of ARPA was to help communities through the pandemic while also addressing inequities that the pandemic further exacerbated,” Bauer said.
The remainder of the allocated money, $300,000, went toward administrative expenses, including consulting and management of the new programs.
Some of the already-allocated money may be reallocated before the deadline at the end of next year, according to Fields.
Kabir said he would like to continue to support many of the projects that began during the pandemic, such as giving money to food services and offering financial assistance to homeowners. However, the mayor said, funding will likely be at lower levels than it was during the pandemic when ARPA money was available.
“My colleagues and the mayor have, at least in this [fiscal year 2025] budget, substantially maintained new programs that were started with ARPA funding, but now they’re transitioning to using general tax dollars,” Adams said.
But, Kabir said, the city “might need to adjust the level a little bit in the coming years as they move forward.”
Other expenses, like the $3 million investment into the housing trust, were “a one-time thing,” he added.
“We had the opportunity, and we invested it,” Kabir said. “We made the right decision.”
