On September 28, 2021, Council adopted Resolution 21-498, providing direction to staff on the allocation of funds made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The resolution specified that 75% of ARPA funds be used on City infrastructure projects, with the remaining 25% used for non-infrastructure projects or direct assistance purposes. The 25% allocation amounts to $5,128,621. To date, $2,766,578.79 has been disbursed or approved, leaving $2,362,042.21 for allocation. Earlier this year, Council directed me to begin another round of solicitations for use of ARPA funds. This solicitation yielded 51 proposals totaling over $12 million in requests.
As with the prior round of solicitations, staff identified short-term and long-term goals that should be pursued in ARPA funding decisions. The short-term goals that staff identified are as follows:
- Help those with immediate needs
- Help those directly impacted by COVID-19
- Compliance with federal ARPA regulations
- Politically acceptable to the Council and community
- Ability to leverage ARPA funds with other revenue sources
- Duplication of effort avoidance with other agencies as well as duplication of ARPA funding avoidance
- Long-term goal/plan congruence with the following:
- Strategic plan goals
- Long-term visible impacts
- Long-term benefits to individuals and community
- Long-term relief for those repaying ARPA funds in the future
Staff evaluated the 51 applications through this lens, and while the exercise assisted in determining the quality of the applications from a grant standpoint, the exercise did not place weight on any specific priorities for the use of funds. Therefore, at the May 14th meeting, I asked for direction from Council on prioritizing areas of need. Council agreed on the following priorities:
- Housing, particularly affordable housing
- Homelessness, both acute and preventative
- Child care capacity
- DEI/under-represented populations
Council also directed staff to seek input from the DEI Committee on any equity concerns they may have. The DEI committee provided input that further assisted staff in developing its recommendations. Based on this additional input, staff made recommendations to Council that were discussed during their June 25 workshop. Following public input and Council discussion, Council provided direction on changes to staff’s initial recommendations, which are summarized in the attached spreadsheet. |
The proposed grants based on Council’s direction are summarized below. Along with each of these grant requests, staff will develop conditions of approval specific to their grant requests. Examples of conditions may include deadlines to raise matching funds, evidence of expenditures, or other conditions that are appropriate for the specific application.
In some cases, a grant is being recommended for operating funds. While operating funds were initially discouraged from City ARPA funding, some applications are for initiatives to enable these groups to establish or re-establish themselves. Agencies receiving operating fund grants will need to develop a path forward to become self-sufficient.
Housing (1 grant, totaling $300,000.00)
Habitat for Humanity and City of Oshkosh Workforce Housing, $300,000.00
Habitat for Humanity has partnered with the City of Oshkosh to acquire the Washington School property and convert it into workforce housing and housing that Habitat for Humanity will make
available to individuals with income at less than 80% of area median income. This project is consistent with the City's goals of affordable housing and increasing our housing stock. The
$300,000 in grant funds will be used to provide new utility services to the 19 individual sites that will be developed. That cost would typically be assumed by the developer or property owner.
Homelessness (3 grants, totaling $325,174.00)
Salvation Army, $120,174.00
The Salvation Army serves our homeless population during the day by offering daytime meals and temporary shelter to these individuals. The Salvation Army was also impacted by Covid and saw its donations drop while its demand for services increased. The $120,174 request is to fund half of the replacement of Salvation Army vehicles that they used to serve their many target clients. The Salvation Army has raised the matching funds to fund the other half of these vehicles. These are all vehicles that are in their fleet and are well past their useful life. This grant will enable the Salvation Army to continue providing these much-needed services to our community.
Day by Day Shelter, $105,000.00
$105,000 is proposed to fund a program to assist their guests in security deposits and other essential expenses associated with transitioning these individuals to permanent housing on their own. The assistance to these individuals is approximately $3,500 each. This will enable Day by Day to assist approximately 30 individuals. This will free up additional beds to assist 30 more individuals experiencing homelessness. Day by Day Shelter initially requested $250,000 in ARPA funds. The other request in their grant is for shelter support services, which we cannot fund at this time.
COTS, $100,000.00
COTS has previously been funded $250,000 as part of the partnership with the Community Foundation to acquire the former Father Carr's on Koeller Road. This new request is to seek direct assistance from the City to fund costs to convert an additional 20 units for transitional housing. Although COTS benefited from the prior round of ARPA requests, it was for the acquisition of the property itself. They were not in a position to request these additional funds at the time of the first round of ARPA requests. Staff considers this supplemental request to be appropriate. Now that COTS is more established in the community, they have sought an additional $200,000 for this phase of their project. Due to funding limitations, staff can only recommend $100,000 at this time, but this will fund approximately the conversion of 10 of the 20 housing units proposed. This will help improve the stock of transitional housing units available in our community.
Childcare Capacity (2 recommendations, totaling $572,560.00)
The Corridor, $354,900.00
The Corridor project is a proposal from Commonwealth Development for a combination of residential development with a childcare center attached. The development will target low-income residents for some of the residential units. The proposed childcare center will have the added benefit of offering second-shift childcare, which is virtually nonexistent in Oshkosh at this time. The proposed funds will address the construction and finishing costs of the childcare center, green improvements, and some costs associated with affordable housing. Approximately $6,250 was also proposed in the grant request to fund childcare consulting services. Those costs have been excluded so that the grant is exclusively for capital construction costs.
ADVOCAP, $217,660.00
ADVOCAP is proposing a unique concept that will enable potential childcare providers a location to start their business with minimal overhead costs. ADVOCAP has to identify the location that would house approximately 4 to 5 separate childcare center incubator sites until such time as the childcare business can establish itself and relocate to a more permanent and possibly larger facility. This project has already been identified for federal funding through Senator Baldwin's office. The grant request for ADVOCAP was for $500,000, but this was one of the last projects to be funded out of our program. Only $217,660 was remaining to fund this program. One of staff's hesitations in funding this program is that the total funding is not identified at this time. The City would need to place a requirement that the matching funds need to be raised by November 1, 2024, so that we know that this project is proceeding. Otherwise, staff would recommend not funding this and returning it for another use by the City. It should also be noted that ADVOCAP was funded approximately $127,000 in the first round of ARPA funding. This was for an entirely different program that provided services to individuals needing rental assistance from a state program. These two projects are significantly different from one another, and both projects address different needs in the community, so staff is comfortable providing this additional grant to ADVOCAP.
DEI/Under-Represented Groups (8 grants, totaling $804,308.00)
SEPO, $300,000.00
SEPO is a local non-profit dedicated to providing services to Black, Brown, African, Immigrant, and Refugee Communities, many of whom were negatively impacted by COVID-19. SEPO is requesting funds to begin work on providing services to individuals needing mentoring and literacy services, particularly for refugee communities that receive no support from the federal government beyond their first 90 days. Staff is recommending funding the SEPO request at $300,000, which is less than their initial request of $350,000. As we looked at information provided by applicants regarding rental of potential space, staff felt that it would be appropriate to cap occupancy costs at $30,000. This is one of the few recommendations for operating costs. However, it should be noted that SEPO has experienced a significant increase in demand for its services following the pandemic. We think it can be reasonably assumed the increase in demand of their services is directly related to the impacts caused by COVID-19, and is therefore justified.
Operation Dream North, $126,000.00
Operation DREAM North is an extension of Operation DREAM in Milwaukee, an initiative started by the applicant, Rodney Bourrage. Operation DREAM North proposes to provide services to at-risk African American youth in Oshkosh. A key feature of the program is a Saturday program for students in k-12th grade, that will operate out of the Boys & Girls Club. The other program is a work program for students in 6th-12th grade needing job exposure and mentorship. Although the group had requested $275,000, the available funds will only make $126,000 available for this program to get started in the fall of 2024. Mr. Bourrage understands that he will need to do fundraising, and believes that the City funds will enable him to launch his fundraising efforts. We will require matching funds of $30,000 for this program to be matched by November 1, 2024.
The Learning Collaborative, $122,000.00
The Learning Collaborative proposes a structured literacy program, focusing on younger children. The program will target Black and low-income students whose scores for literacy proficiency in the Oshkosh Area School District are lower than average. There will also be a focus on students with dyslexia, so it covers other disadvantaged groups that were deemed a priority by the DEI committee. Similar to the SEPO group, the cost of occupancy is capped at $30,000. This is another group receiving operating costs, but due to the target audience and their impact from COVID-19, this is deemed to be an appropriate target audience.
Lakeside Packaging Plus, $90,000.00
Lakeside Packaging Plus is requesting $90,000 for an outdoor recreation area to be used by their clients. This area will be wheelchair accessible, add walkways and raised garden beds, a pavilion, native plants, and more entries to this area. Currently, the clients of Lakeside Packaging Plus use the parking lot for recreation. This initiative will enable their clients to enjoy recreation services in a safer and more inclusive setting. Lakeside Packaging Plus will fund the remainder of this $181,000 project with other funds that they will generate.
Winnebago Area Literacy Council, $25,708.00
The Winnebago Area Literacy Council (WALC) was negatively impacted by COVID-19. They are beginning to restore services that they have previously provided. The Winnebago Area Literacy Council serves both individuals in need of functional literacy services, and English language services for the Refugee population. This is one of two applications that WALC applied for. This application proposes to use the funds for educational materials and workbooks to get themselves re-established. Although it is considered operating funds, this will enable them to restore services that ended during the pandemic.
Jericho Road Lutheran Food Pantry, $48,100.00
Jericho Road is one of several food pantries in the Oshkosh area. Their services have been in high demand since the pandemic, and they are in need of replacement refrigeration equipment and an electric-powered lift truck. Given the fact that the request is for 100% capital, and they serve such a large portion of clients for our local food pantry, this request is reasonable.
Covey, $75,000.00
Covey is requesting $75,000 towards a $115,000 project to fund improvements to their Respite House. The proposed funds will be used to assist with roof, window, patio door, and hot water heater replacement to improve the energy efficiency of their facility. This will provide significant cost savings for them in future years, enabling them to better serve their target population (developmentally disabled people) which was negatively impacted by the pandemic.
Hope Fridge – Oshkosh Pride , $17,500
Oshkosh Pride is an annual celebration of the LGBTQ+ community, held at the Leach Amphitheater. The event features performers, local resource tables, vendor booths, games, an affirming and accepting environment, and community building activities. The group’s primary goal is to support the LGBTQ+ community and help combat isolation and loneliness within that community and prevent the rate of suicide that can occur as a result of those feelings. The group had requested $97,184 to purchase equipment to support the logistics of their event, including walkie-talkies; upgrades to their sound and lighting system; reusable water bottles for attendees; and private security costs for their event. Council directed staff to fund a portion of this grant request with available remaining funds.
Other Projects Identified As Priorities by Council (3 grants totaling 360,000)
Business Improvement District (BID), $150,000
The Downtown Oshkosh BID had requested $300,000 in ARPA funds to grow and expand the organization to further serve the community. These funds will be used as seed money over the course of three years (2024-2026) to create a nonprofit organization and add another staff member. The BID will use the three years to create a nonprofit organization and will establish multiple funding sources to maintain staff and operations. After the three-year grant, it is expected that the proposed position and additional programs will be funded by the newly created non-profit and/or other program revenue. Council directed staff to fund a portion of this grant request with available remaining funds.
Oshkosh Healthy Neighborhoods, $150,000
Oshkosh Healthy Neighborhoods currently receives City funds from the Healthy Neighborhood Initiative Fund to cover most of its operating funds. Those funds are limited and are currently being used to fund the housing improvement programs that have grown in popularity. After staff informed GO-HNI that the Healthy Neighborhood funds would no longer be available, they submitted a request for ARPA funds to continue their work. The grant funds would be used to assist GO-HNI in continuing their support to Neighborhood Associations; support their “Good Neighbor” curb appeal grants; Community Building and Engagement Programs; and Welcome Bags for neighborhood associations to distribute to new residents. GO-HNI will use ARPA funds to maintain these programs until such time that they can build their fund-raising capacity. Council directed staff to fund a portion of this grant request with available remaining funds.
Hooper Community Center, $60,000
Hooper Community Center (“Hooper”) is a locally based non-profit entity that exists to provide affordable space to non-profit entities serving the Oshkosh Area. Hooper currently houses 8 non-profits in their building. Hooper is in the midst of a fund-raising effort to invest $240,000 into this 140-year-old building, including parking lot improvements, outdoor security features, and interior improvements such as painting, lighting, flooring, and windows. Many of these improvements will improve the energy efficiency of the building. Hooper already has half of these funds available and is seeking ARPA funds to cover 25% of the proposed improvement costs, with the remaining 25% to be raised through a capital campaign. |
