HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-15-21 Public Comment - H. Grenier - Recommended BudgetFrom:Heather Grenier
To:Agenda
Subject:[SENDER UNVERIFIED]public comment - City Manager Recommended Budget
Date:Tuesday, June 15, 2021 8:06:19 AM
Attachments:Public Comment_COB.pdf
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Good Morning,
Please see attached public comment to share with the Commissioners.
Respectfully,
Heather GrenierPresident/CEOHRDC32 S Tracy Avenue | Bozeman, MT 59715111 S 2nd Street | Livingston, MT 59047www.thehrdc.org
June 15, 2021
Public Comment – City Manager Recommended Budget
APRA Funds
Dear Commissioners:
Since 1975, HRDC has played a critical role in meeting the needs of our community through
programming that addresses the root causes of poverty and helps families and individuals
thrive. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked diligently to ensure that
community members most impacted by the pandemic have continued to have access to
necessities like food and shelter. We were able to do this through the generosity of our
community and strategic partnerships with funders, including the City of Bozeman. As we
enter the fifteenth month of our COVID response, we can now see that while the pandemic’s
impacts have been widespread, the economic impacts have fallen most severely on the
populations that were most disadvantaged and vulnerable before it began. Our area’s
recovery has been equally disproportionate, with job and income gains largely concentrated
among households with higher pre-pandemic incomes. Industries with higher concentrations
of low-wage earners have been among the slowest to recover. At the same time, the rental
market, already experiencing an affordability and availability crisis before the pandemic, has
skyrocketed further out of reach for those households.
The impacts of COVID-19 most widely experienced in our community and impacting our
economic recovery include:
- Significant increases in the instances of depression and anxiety and overall behavioral health
needs;
- Increased drug overdoses;
- Increased domestic violence;
- Reduced child care availability preventing many from returning to the workforce;
- Lower wage industries recovering more slowly than other industries;
- Reduction in housing inventory and affordability;
- Increased food insecurity;
- Disproportionate effects on women and lower wage earners;
- Increased homelessness;
- Exacerbation of pre-existing disparities
The Fiscal Recovery Funds to be received by the City of Bozeman represent an opportunity to
respond to the continued negative impacts of the pandemic on our most vulnerable
community members. In 31 CFR Part 35, Sections 602(c)(1) and 603(c)(1)
provide those funds may be used for four purposes, the first of which is to
respond to the public health emergency or its negative economic
impacts, noting, “Finally, these resources lay the foundation for a strong,
equitable economic recovery, not only by providing immediate
economic stabilization for households and business, but also by
addressing the systematic public health and economic challenges that may have contributed to
more severe impacts of the pandemic among low‐income communities and people of color.”
While the CFR notes that the guidance allows communities a flexibility in determining their
greatest needs, it encourages that payments from the Fiscal Recovery Funds should be
designed to address an economic harm resulting from or exacerbated by the public health
emergency. And that communities direct assistance to those households most
disproportionately impacted by the public health emergency. The CFR lays out a non-
exclusive list of eligible activities, a few of them listed here:
Assistance to unemployed workers including job training to accelerate rehiring of unemployed
workers;
Assistance to households including food, rent, mortgage or utility assistance, job training, etc.;
Aid to impacted industries;
Investments in housing and neighborhoods including services to address homelessness;
Affordable housing development to increase the supply of affordable and high-quality living
units;
New, expanded or enhanced early learning services including pre-kindergarten, Head Start or
partnerships between pre-kindergarten programs and local education;
Evidence-based practices to address the social, emotional and mental health needs of students;
New or expanded high quality childcare to provide safe and supportive care for children
The City Manager’s Budget recommendation as presented on June 8, 2021 designates the
largest portion of these funds (87%) to water and sewer infrastructure.
The Treasury encourages recipients to consider funding uses that foster a strong, inclusive
and equitable recovery, especially uses with long-term benefits for health and economic
outcomes.
We strongly encourage the City to consider a community driven process to allocate ARPA funds to
best address those citizens most impacted by COVID and to build a more resilient economy that
ensures that basic needs are met for all.
Sincerely,
Heather Grenier
President/CEO