American Rescue Plan Spending Plan Approved By City Council

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Uses of Alexandria's first allocation from the federal American Rescue Plan were decided by a City Council vote Tuesday.

The allocation plan concerns the $29.8 million the city received in its first allocation from the federal stimulus. The second allocation will be the same amount and come in May 2022.

City Council unanimously approved an allocation plan with 30 projects with costs ranging from $20,000 and $4 million. The projects met all goals for funding uses and city objectives as well as permitted use of the federal funds. The city's COVID-19 recovery goals seek to help businesses thrive, help everyone meet the basics, lift everyone through recovery, and make long-term investments for the city's future. Projects have a funding completion deadline at the end of 2024.

"This assistance from the American Rescue Plan Act will support our residents and business community in many ways for years to come," said Mayor Justin Wilson in a statement. "I’m proud of this spending plan, which was developed with significant input from community members to ensure that our investment of these one-time funds equitably delivers on Alexandrians’ needs today and into the future."

The process of deciding programs started with city departments developing a list of potential programs and projects for American Rescue Plan funds. The departments then refined or added proposals based on community feedback from April 30 to May 14. Staff then refined the list to ensure proposals met federal regulations and considered whether proposals were feasible in the funding timeframe, have gone through a community process, furthered equity criteria, had thorough cost estimates and scalability, and more.

Proposals were then prioritized in tiers, with tier 1 and 2 projects classified as being highly important, having an immediate impact and ready to implement. Tier 3 and 4 projects are considered highly important but not as urgent or ready to address immediately; these may be considered for the second allocation. Beyond tier 4 projects may not directly qualify for use of funds or may not be feasible within the funding timeframe.

Two residents testified Tuesday on how the city should use American Rescue Plan funds: resident Michael Johnson and Ingris Moran representing Tenants and Workers United. Both spoke in support of funds going toward residents who could use the most assistance. Moran advocated for affordable housing and rental assistance for the hardest-hit communities of the pandemic — working class people of color — and addressing equity issues.

"Our community, working class people of color, who are the front-line workers, the ones who got infected with COVID disproportionately, who struggled to feed their families and dealt with the constant looming fear of evictions," said Moran. "Our communities have always struggled with low wages, discrimination and social inequities, and COVID only made everything worse. Every federal relief program have left many of our families out, but now we have a chance to begin to remedy the current crisis and take small steps toward long-term race and class equity."

Johnson, a West End resident, said he experienced homelessness for two years and now lives in an apartment. He advocated for assistance for low-income residents like himself, describing poor conditions in his apartment community, including his unit being 90 degrees with the air conditioning being out. He said another neighbor went over two weeks without air conditioning and residents experienced lack of responsiveness from the building. Johnson recently underwent open-heart surgery and relies on Social Security income.

"This pandemic has impacted me because everything is coming back to normal, and the cost of living continues to go up, and the rent keeps increasing every year," he told City Council.

Wilson promised to get in touch with Johnson to help with his concerns.

The allocation plan approved by City Council includes seven programs to help businesses thrive, eight to help everyone access the basics, 10 to help recovery lift everyone, and four for long-term community investment. There was also a general allocation for city COVID-19 expenses, response and grant administration.

Here are the full details on the approved allocation plan:

Businesses thrive

• Lower King Street Closure/King Street Place (Short Term): $100,000
• Visit Alexandria Web Site Enhancement: $120,000
• New Business Support Programs: $280,000
• Visit Alexandria, Expanding Audiences, Awareness & Regional Marketing: $500,000
• Seed funding for Old Town North Community Development Authority: $500,000
• Foundational Support for Commercial Business Districts: $560,000
• Re-employment and Upskilling Project: $1,120,000

Everyone has access to the basics

• The Unified Early Childhood Workforce Stabilization Initiative: $2,830,000
• Rental Resiliency: $312,000
• Food Security System Advancement: $2,500,000
• Alexandria Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot: $3,000,000
• Alexandria Community Access and Emergency Support Grant Program: $4,000,000
• Legal Services of Northern Virginia COVID-19 Eviction Prevention: $200,000
• Food/Rent Bridge Funding #2: $450,000
• Food/Rent Bridge Funding #1: $1,000,000

Recovery lifts everyone

• Digital Equity Plan & Broadband Strategist and Policy Analyst: $420,000
• Alexandria Library Outdoor Programs & Job Skills Workshops: $24,000
• City Arts Relief and Recovery Grants to Alexandria based Artist(s) and Arts Organizations: $110,000
• Alexandria African American History Tourism Enhancements: $295,000
• Increase Seasonal Staffing Hours at Freedom House: $150,000
• Alexandria Community Remembrance Project: $150,000
• Alexandria Library Mobile Hotspot Lending Program: $20,000
• LGBTQ & BIPOC Equity Project: $253,000
• Out of School Time Program Enhanced Enrichment Programming and Financial Assistance Opportunities: $620,000
• Court Mental Health & Asset Builder Program: $500,000

Long-term community investment

• Arlandria Chirilagua Housing Cooperative Improvement Initiative (study): $50,000
• Flash Flooding spot improvements: $1,900,000
• AHDC - Arlandria Community-Serving City Flex Space: $2,000,000
• Stormwater State of Good Repair & Resiliency: $3,852,000

Citywide general COVID expenses, response and grant administration: $2,000,916

Total: $29,816,916.50

Alexandria City Public Schools is receiving a separate allocation of $35,407,000 from the American Rescue Plan. The allocation plan for the city's second allotment of American Rescue Plan funds will be developed in the fall.

Full descriptions of projects can be found at www.alexandriava.gov/AmericanRescuePlan.