Fort Collins got $28M in American Rescue Plan money. Here’s how they spent it.

Molly Bohannon, Fort Collins Coloradoan
·6 min read

The American Rescue Plan Act — passed in 2021 to help individuals and communities recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19 — dropped $28.1 million in Fort Collins’ lap.

The money distributed to state and local governments totaled more than $360 billion in emergency funding “to ensure that they are in a position to keep front line public workers on the job and paid, while also effectively distributing the vaccine, scaling testing, reopening schools, and maintaining other vital services.”

As of November 2022, all of the city’s ARPA funding had been allocated across dozens of programs, “with large amounts of funding going directly to local businesses and community partners.”

Projects were divided into these five categories:

  • Health

  • Environmental resilience

  • Economic recovery

  • Government operations

  • Equity and community resilience

Of these categories, equity and community resilience received the most funding from the city, followed by government operations and economic recovery.

City Council allocated the money in four separate segments, designating:

  • $4.2 million for shorter-term projects to address immediate needs for response and recovery in 2021

  • $4 million allocated across the 2022 budget

  • $4.1 million for a mid-cycle appropriation to address emerging recovery needs in 2022

  • $15.8 million allocated in the 2023-24 budget

Most of the 2023-24 budget programs have launched, but Fiscal Recovery Manager Jo Cech said the majority are “still in their set-up phase,” doing things like setting up processes, issuing requests for proposals and getting contracts approved.

The ARPA dollars allowed Fort Collins to create 20 programs that “break new ground,” 18 programs to address pandemic-related needs and ongoing services and nine programs to improve government operations.

Read on to see the highlights of how the money was allocated, from new programs to the highest-funded programs. For more information about individual programs or the city's recovery efforts, visit https://fortcollins.clearpointstrategy.com/recovery/.

Equity and community resilience projects fund homeless, housing and cultural efforts

ARPA dollars allocated: $8.6 million (31% of all of the city's ARPA funds)

Major projects: Nearly half of all funding in this category went to improve housing services in one way or another. More than $1 million was given to the Heartside Hill development — a housing project being funded by local, regional and state partners that would add 71 units of affordable rentals. And more than $3 million collectively will go to homeless services by way of expanding Outreach Fort Collins, adding case management and improving rapid rehousing and 24/7 shelter efforts.

Projects:

  • Homelessness Services, Sustainability Services, $3,462,000

  • Heartside Hill, Sustainability Services, $1,100,000

  • Eviction Legal Fund, Planning Development & Transportation, $640,000

  • Cultural services community programs manager and program support, Community Services, $467,794

  • Utilities Pandemic Assistance, Utilities, $460,000

  • Affordable Housing Fee Credit Fund, Sustainability Services, $350,000

  • Native American Community Relations Specialist, executive services, $313,217

  • SSD Recovery Specialist, $147,923

  • Special events recovery grants, executive services, $125,000

  • Expanded Community Outreach and Engagement, Information and Employee Services, $55,000

  • Neighborhood Resilience Projects, Planning, Development & Transportation, $40,000

  • Language Access Services for Council Meetings and High Priority Civic Engagement Events, Executive Services, $34,560

  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Professional Services, Executive Services, $25,000

Government operations: Money funds administration of programs, parking structures, Wi-Fi

ARPA dollars allocated: $7.8 million (28%)

Major projects: Funding in this category is used to ensure the city has the staff to run its recovery plan and make some changes to government structures. For example, about $1.3 million was used to make “critical repairs” to downtown parking structures and $1.3 million more was used to rearrange meeting spaces and make them hybrid work-friendly and to improve community Wi-Fi to “increase community members’ ability to access important resources and conduct needed work they may not be able to complete elsewhere.”

Projects:

  • ARPA Local Match for State Funds, $2,500,000

  • Parking Structure Critical Preventative Repairs, Planning, Development and Transportation, $1,348,000

  • COVID-Related Hybrid Meeting Spaces and Community Wi-Fi, Information and Employee Services, $1,300,000

  • Recovery Administration, Finance, $823,000

  • Cyber Risk Management, Information and Employee Services, $275,000

  • HR Staff Support, Information and Employee Services, $268,000

  • Municipal Court Services — Technology, $225,000

  • Crisis Communications Plan, Information and Employee Services, $130,000

  • Recovery Communications, Finance, $50,000

Economic recovery money goes to support businesses, individuals

ARPA dollars allocated: $6.3 million (22%)

Major projects: The creation of the Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center, a place at which local businesses or people from historically underserved backgrounds can get support, training and resources, cost the city $1.3 million. They served over 100 different individuals in 2022. Much of this money also went to improve child care services; last year money went to four different organizations and there’s still almost $1 million allocated in the coming year's budget.

Projects:

  • Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center, Sustainability Services, $1,336,006

  • Childcare System Support, Sustainability Services, $1,146,123

  • Small Business Grants, Sustainability Services, $1,060,000

  • Learning Loss Mitigation, Sustainability Services, $400,000

  • Expanded Technical Assistance for Small Businesses, Planning, Development and Transportation, $354,511

  • Capital Project Business Liaison, Sustainability Services, $275,000

  • For Fort Collins, Sustainability Services, $190,000

  • Economic Strategic Plan, Sustainability Services, $100,000

Environmental resilience funds aim to improve energy efficiency

ARPA dollars allocated: $3 million (11%)

Major projects: The priciest project in this category is replacing HVAC units in various buildings to improve efficiency, which came with the price tag of $2.4 million. The three projects in this category all received their funding in the 2023-24 budget, so they aren’t fully off the ground yet and there’s not much information about them yet.

Projects:

  • Building HVAC Electrification & Efficiency Replacements, $2,437,653

  • Contractual Mobile Home Park Code Compliance & Building Evaluation, $344,000

  • Lincoln Center Converting Stage Lighting to LED, $227,278

Health funding focuses on mental, social health, including for police and residents

ARPA dollars allocated: $2.4 million (8.5%)

Major projects: More than $600,000 of this funding was used to speed up the creation of the Fort Collins’ police mental health response team, which provides critical care to people experiencing mental or behavioral health issues before, during and after 911 crisis calls. To improve access to cultural services for low-income residents, $185,000 in ARPA funds were allocated to give access to city experiences, like the Gardens at Spring Creek and Museum of Discovery, and to add signs in Spanish to be more inclusive.

Projects:

  • Mental Health Response Team, Police Services, $660,429

  • Social Services Recovery, distributed through grants in the community, $510,000

  • Cultural Services Access Fund for Low-Income Residents, Community Services, $485,000

  • Reduced Fee Scholarship Funding Increase, Community Services, $300,000

  • Poudre Fire Authority, TecGen PPE Gear, $150,000

  • Mental health, addiction and teen diversion services, Municipal Court, $75,000

  • Parks Lawn & Garden Equipment Replacement, $70,000

Molly Bohannon covers city government for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Here's how Fort Collins spent $28.1 million in ARPA funding