116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
How Corridor governments spent $140M of pandemic aid
ARPA funds fuel affordable housing, nonprofits, infrastructure
Since its start in 2012, Dream City has continued to evolve its mission with the support of the community the organization calls home ― Iowa City.
Dream City, 611 Southgate Ave., began as a community organization with an aim to support young men of color with different programming, such as performing arts. Eight years after it began, the organization began to pivot its focus to community and economic development in south Iowa City.
Soon after this shift, Dream City applied for a grant through the city to help it grow and reach its ultimate goal of becoming an entrepreneurial and community hub. In November 2023, Dream City was awarded $3 million from Iowa City’s grant program.
The organization has used the money to acquire the building it previously rented, hire full-time employees and start building renovations, said Frederick Newell, Dream City’s executive director.
The grant was one of tens of millions of dollars in funding throughout the Corridor made under the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion federal relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law in March 2021, intended to relieve individuals and municipalities from the economic strain of the pandemic.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, $350 billion was allocated to state, local and tribal governments across the nation to help “continue to support the public health response and lay the foundation for a strong and equitable economic recovery.”
Iowa received its own pool of ARPA funding, totaling about $4.4 billion. The state also received $1.4 billion from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund portion of ARPA dollars. Of that, Linn and Johnson counties and the communities in them received about $140 million.
Through ARPA, the state has tackled projects related to infrastructure improvements, economic recovery, public health and revenue replacement.
Communities have until Dec. 31 to decide how to spend their share of ARPA funds. All funds must be spent by the end of 2026. Any unspent funds will be returned to the Treasury Department.
Intended to remedy the inequities that COVID-19 left behind, ARPA allocations can be used to fund only certain areas such as revenue loss, public health impacts, economic impacts and infrastructure improvements. Local officials have tapped into the unprecedented influx of federal dollars to make investments in nonprofits, affordable housing, flood protection and more.
Nonprofit support
Many Corridor nonprofits received ARPA funding from the county or cities, boosting their capacity to support underserved populations.
Dream City was one recipient though Iowa City. The city received $18.3 million in ARPA funding and so far has allocated $15.6 million of it.
Renovations for Dream City are underway and are estimated to be finished by spring 2025, Newell said. The renovations will add community gathering spaces, meeting rooms, commercial kitchens and other amenities for community members and business owners to use, he said.
Dream City also will use the grant to provide entrepreneurial support, including events like lunch-and-learns and mentorships for those hoping to grow their own business, Newell said.
The grant has helped Dream City achieve its goals quicker than previously thought and can help it make a systemic impact, Newell said.
“At some point, we would have gotten to the ownership (of the Dream City building) position, but ownership could have meant a loan,” Newell said. “Ownership in this particular project isn’t a loan — it is a building that’s completely paid off that allows us to focus directly on the work.”
Cedar Rapids and Linn County also have invested some ARPA money into nonprofits. Through a competitive grant process, the two governments have made available $31 million to local nonprofits.
Kirkwood Community College is among the ARPA recipients.
Cedar Rapids received $28.1 million in ARPA funding and has allocated a total of $1 million to three different Kirkwood initiatives. These programs are the Cedar Rapids College Career Connection scholarships for students enrolling in career and technical education programs; English language classes for immigrants and refugees; and Skill-Up CR, a program designed to address employment barriers.
These initiatives all help the local workforce in some way, said Jasmine Almoayyed, Kirkwood’s vice president for continuing education and training services. She said Kirkwood has spent $681,000 of its allocation from Cedar Rapids.
The Cedar Rapids College Career Connection program helps fill the financial gaps not covered by scholarships and grants for those pursuing technical education in Cedar Rapids, Almoayyed said. According to a June 25 City Council report, 318 students have received assistance from this program and nearly $600,000 has been awarded.
The English language courses help teach local immigrants and refugees English literacy skills and civics education, Almoayyed said. Since its start in 2021, the program has helped over 300 students, she said.
Skill-Up CR incentivizes technical employers to hire applicants who are still in need of credentialing and training by reimbursing the employer the cost of the employee learning on the job, Almoayyed said. This program’s goal is to address the workforce shortage in jobs like logistics and warehousing, she said.
So far, Kirkwood has not used any of the ARPA money allocated for this project as it has been able to connect employers with other resources, Almoayyed said. The money still is there in case the college needs it, she said.
ARPA funding has helped Kirkwood fulfill its purpose of serving the community’s needs through a turbulent time period, Almoayyed said.
“With the added layer of complication that was brought from the pandemic ― and then here locally, the derecho that we had on top of it ― the needs that existed in the community at that time were far greater than what we would have even anticipated before,” Almoayyed said. “So the ARPA money coming at the time was really helpful in rounding out where there might have otherwise been additional gaps that existed.”
Affordable housing
Housing affordability has been top of mind for local government officials when awarding ARPA dollars, as the nation grapples with a shortage of affordable housing. With housing in short supply, rent has skyrocketed. Inflation has driven up mortgages and new construction costs.
Linn County, Johnson County, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City all have allocated some ARPA money to housing in various ways.
In Cedar Rapids, the city pledged $2.5 million of its ARPA dollars and leveraged other grants to renovate a previously vacant building in Wellington Heights into 25 rental units. The affordable housing complex is dubbed “The Heights.”
Iowa City is working on a similar project and plans to purchase properties in the community to “expand the publicly owned housing portfolio of the Iowa City Housing Authority,” according to the most recent ARPA funding update May 30. This project has not yet been started, but city staff recommend allocating nearly $1.7 million to it.
Local homeless shelters also have received ARPA dollars from county and city funding pools as Linn and Johnson counties have seen record-high numbers of unhoused people since the pandemic.
That includes $1.1 million to Iowa City-based Shelter House for eviction prevention services and $1 million from Linn County to local homeless shelters.
Johnson County Supervisor Chair Rod Sullivan said one of the greatest impacts of the ARPA funding was the relief it helped provide members of the community. It also showed how governments can step in to help its constituents, he said.
“I’ve been outspoken about the fact that I don’t think state government does enough for people in this state, and I think for a long time, counties and cities have been picking up some of that slack,” Sullivan said. “ … I hope (ARPA) serves as a little bit of a wake-up call to people that government can and should be doing more to help people.”
Mental health
According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of adults nationwide reported high levels of psychological distress at some point in the pandemic. To address this, local governments awarded ARPA funding to many mental health organizations.
Ben Rogers, vice chair of the Linn County Board of Supervisors, said one of the projects he’s most proud of funding is Foundation 2 Crisis Services’ permanent headquarters in downtown Cedar Rapids. Linn County awarded $2.3 million to the project.
Foundation 2 is a nonprofit organization that provides mental health crisis prevention and intervention services. Some of the organization’s services include a crisis chat line and an emergency shelter to help those who need to temporarily live away from home.
The organization used its county-awarded funding to renovate and relocate several buildings into one facility at the historic Witwer Building, 305 Second Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids.
Iowa City also has awarded ARPA money to mental health organizations. CommUnity Crisis Services, an organization similar to Foundation 2, has been awarded about $930,000 to hire three full-time mobile crisis response counselors and buy eight mobile crisis response vehicles.
Lasting impact
Of the roughly $140 million in ARPA funds that Linn and Johnson governments received, Linn County got $44 million and Johnson County got $29.3 million.
According to county records, Linn County has about $350,000 left to award, and Johnson County has about $2.4 million left.
Rogers said Linn County’s priority when determining where the ARPA dollars should go was to keep the money within the community and not in the government itself. Many projects funded helped organizations get started, which will hopefully make a generational impact on the community, he said.
“We spread this out geographically, so I think almost every city in Linn County received some ARPA award from Linn County,” Rogers said. “We wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just centralized ― that it got out into all corners of the county.”
While ARPA was a once-in-a-lifetime financial opportunity, it was not without its challenges. Sullivan said if he could do it all over again, he would try to narrow the county’s funding focus to not strain county staff from involved in so many programs at the same time.
Both Sullivan and Rogers said there was a strong sense of responsibility to make sure the projects funded by ARPA would make a lasting impact, which Sullivan said led to some difficult choices in deciding which projects should be funded and which should not.
“We’re proud of the good things that have happened from this, and we’re proud of the good things that will happen from this,” Sullivan said. “And we wish we could have done more.”
Comments: (319)-265-6849; isabelle.foland@thegazette.com
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