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June 2022
City of Richmond, CA
Using the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
to Meet our Highest Needs
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Agenda
ARPA Overview 3
Community Needs Assessment 7
Engagement 12
Next Steps 19
Appendix 21
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ARPA OVERVIEW
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What is the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)? How much
funding did Richmond receive?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
American Rescue Plan Act:
Passed in March 2021
Federal funding for cities and
states
Aims to help communities
continue a strong and
equitable recovery
$27.7M
Richmond’s local ARPA
funding award
$10.5M
Already committed to recover revenue
losses, provide critical government services,
and provide direct assistance to impacted
Richmond residents and businesses
$17.2M
To be allocated based on identified
community needs
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How can ARPA money be spent?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
INFRASTRUCTUREPREMIUM PAYLOST PUBLIC
REVENUE
COVID-19
RESPONSE
Support public health
expenditures
Address negative
economic impacts caused
by public health
emergency
Serve the hardest-hit
communities and families
Replace lost fiscal revenue
in city budgets
Provide premium pay for
essential workers
Invest in water, sewer,
and broadband
infrastructure
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What should cities consider when deciding how to spend
ARPA funds?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
1. Short-Term Recovery
• Immediate Uses: Spending can go towards immediate relief and recovery • Community Needs: Support disproportionately impacted individuals, families, businesses, cities, and economies
2. Long-Term Stability
• Planning Ahead: Cities may complete a long-term community needs assessment to plan ARPA projects • Financial Stability: Consider spreading ARPA funding over the full qualifying time period to complete planned investments
3. Temporary Funding
• Timeline: Cities must allocate funding by 2024, and spend them by 2026 • Funding Ongoing Operations: Funds should be spent on one-time activities or services, since new programs or services that require ongoing funding would need to identify a new future funding source
4. Regional Coordination
• Funding Levels: ARPA funding is distributed at the city, county, and state level • Coordination: Potential opportunities to streamline projects and reduce service duplication DRAFT 7
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COMMUNITY
NEEDS
ASSESSMENT
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Who was disproportionately impacted by
the COVID-19 pandemic?
COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS
Ratio of Income to Poverty Level, where families
under 1.00 are considered in poverty, 1.00 to
1.99 are considered struggling, and over 2.00
are not at risk of poverty
Source: ACS 2020 (5-Year); For more information on how the U.S. Census measures poverty, please see here:
https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html
PEOPLE LIVING IN
POVERTY
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Who was disproportionately impacted by
the COVID-19 pandemic?
COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS
GROUPS FACING STRUCTURAL RACISM
Source: ACS 2020 (5-Year)
Concentration of
Black or African
American Residents
Concentration of
Asian Residents
Concentration of
Hispanic Residents
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Who was disproportionately impacted by
the COVID-19 pandemic?
COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS
Concentration of Renters
Source: ACS 2020 (5-Year)
RENTERS
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Who was disproportionately impacted by
the COVID-19 pandemic?
COMMUNITY DEMOGRAPHICS
WORKERS IN ESSENTIAL
SERVICES
SINGLE PARENT
HOUSEHOLDS
HOUSEHOLDS WITH
LIMITED ACCESS TO WIFI
INDIVIDUALS WITH
PREEXISTING HEALTH
CONCERNS
PEOPLE LACKING
HEALTH
INSURANCE
COMMUNITIES WITH
LANGUAGE BARRIERS
SOCIALLY ISOLATED
POPULATIONS
PEOPLE LACKING
PERMANENT HOUSING
DISABLED INDIVIDUALS
PEOPLE WITHOUT JOB
SECURITY
SMALL BUSINESSES
Sample populations based on national news sources on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic DRAFT 12
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ENGAGEMENT
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What does a successful engagement
process look like? How do we measure it?
GOALS, PRINCIPLES, AND TARGETS
Criteria for Success
• Engagement has reached a diverse sample of residents, including a diverse range of incomes, ages, and racial and ethnic backgrounds, with a focus on identifying and reaching those most impacted by COVID-19.
• Engagement has reached vulnerable or hard-to-reach
populations, including veterans, disabled individuals, the unhoused, and undocumented, or organizations that provide services to these populations.
• Engagement has reached individuals or organizations that have not previously been engaged in efforts related to ARPA or other community needs.
• Engagement has reached business owners and property
owners in Richmond, as well as residents and community
service providers.
• Engagement has reached residents from throughout the city.
Engagement Principles1
• Understand and respect all community voices by
reaching diverse audiences and promoting cultural
competency and empathy
• Value, compensate, and amplify community
knowledge and recognize that residents are
unquestionably the experts.
• (Re)build trust and transparency by clearly discussing what can and cannot be done, why, when, how, and by
whom.
• Foster collective learning by creating two-way channels of communication.
• Reduce barriers to participation by meeting people
where they are (language, physical and digital, cultural, etc.), thus creating a more welcoming environment.
1 Engagement Principles adapted from Elevated Chicago (2019) “Community Engagement Principles and Recommendations”.
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HR&A and Contigo are planning a range of activities to
connect with representative and diverse populations.
ENGAGEMENT OVERVIEW
Key Engagement Components
1. Community scan of area stakeholders
A list of focus areas that forms the basis of project’s communications and engagement list; the draft was
presented to the Project Manager for input and approval
2. Listening tour with trusted project partners
Engage local constituents and build networks to eventually help implement COVID-19 recovery efforts
3. Regular and transparent two-way communications
Effectively convey project progress, provide opportunities to attend meetings and communicate with the project team to inform the process of identifying investment priorities, and communicate key findings from our listening tour prior to seeking City Council approval
Image Source: Brian L. Frank for Mother Jones
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Reaching targeted community organizations creates a
bridge to constituents that live and work in Richmond.
COMMUNITY SCAN
Target Populations and Stakeholder Groups
• Latinx/Spanish speaking residents
• Black residents
• Youth
• Seniors
• Disabled
• Immigrants
• Homeless
• Community service providers (services range in type, but include health and educational organizations)
• Local businesses
• Retail and hospitality sector
• Local workforce, including reentry population
• Renters and housing advocacy organizations
A vital component of the outreach plan is the
community scan, which serves to:
• Identify potential collaborative partners that can
help reach residents not likely to attend large
format public meetings
• Develop a project outreach list that highlights
trusted organizations
Starting with the community scan helps us to exceed
traditional public participation requirements and
create more meaningful engagement relationships
and outputs.
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A public survey will enable broad input on
the City's spending priorities.
LISTENING TOUR | PUBLIC SURVEY
The survey will be available in English and Spanish and be widely available to all city residents and businesses to gather input.
Outreach will take place via collaboration with primarily community service organizations and grassroots door-
to-door outreach to local businesses who can post and
distribute flyers in commercial corridors.
Target: Receive at least 500 total survey
responses, aiming for a near representative
sample of Richmond residents in terms of age,
race/ethnicity, income, and geography.
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Focus groups allow targeted
engagement with impacted residents.
LISTENING TOUR | FOCUS GROUPS
The team is working closely with community
organizations to engage underrepresented voices in
60-minute, compensated sessions.
Focus groups are still being scheduled, with nearly
10 completed or calendared already.
Target: Speak with at least 100 community
members from target populations.
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We will work with the City to host open sessions for
community members to share ideas and priorities.
LISTENING TOUR | COMMUNITY MEETINGS
Public meetings, like this one, will share information
about APRA engagement opportunities and findings.
Target: Host two public meetings.
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NEXT STEPS
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The Community Needs Assessment will inform the
development of ARPA investment priorities.
NEXT STEPS
L I S T E N I N G T O U R
C O M M U N I T Y N E E D S A S S E S S M E N T
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
D E V E L O P
R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S
A R PA I N V E S T M E N T
P L A N
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APPENDIX
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How can ARPA money be spent?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
COVID-19
RESPONSE
Support public health
expenditures
• Mitigate the spread of
COVID-19
• Address mental and
behavioral healthcare
needs
Address negative economic
impacts caused by public
health emergency
• Provide assistance to
workers and families (job
training, cash assistance)
• Support small businesses
(loans or grants, technical
assistance)
• Speed tourism, travel, and
hospitality recovery
• Rebuild public sector
capacity
Serve the hardest-hit
communities and families
• Address health
disparities, social
determinants of health
• Invest in housing and
neighborhoods
• Address educational
disparities
• Promote healthy
childhood environments
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How can ARPA money be spent?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
LOST PUBLIC
REVENUE
The most flexible eligible use category, which can broadly be used to “support government services”. Government services generally include any service traditionally provided by a government, including (but not limited to):
• Construction of schools and hospitals
• Road building and maintenance, and other infrastructure • Health services
• General government administration, staff, and administrative facilities • Environmental remediation
• Provision of police, fire, and other public safety services (including purchase of fire trucks and police vehicles)
NOTE: The City of Richmond has already committed $8.95M to recover revenue losses and provide government services under this category
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How can ARPA money be spent?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
PREMIUM
PAY
Broad latitude to provide premium pay to eligible workers performing essential work during the pandemic, up to $13/hour in addition to wages or compensation.
To ensure premium pay is targeted to workers who faced/face heightened risks due to the character of their work, eligible workers are defined as:
• Workers “needed to maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors” (including, health care, grocery stores and food production, family or childcare, social services, government, education, laundry, transportation and warehousing, and more). • Workers performing “essential work” (e.g., regular, in-person interactions and/or regularly handling items that others are also handling)
• Workers in which the premium pay “responds to” workers performing essential work during the public health emergency
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How can ARPA money be spent?
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
INFRA-
STRUCTURE
Broadband
• Build broadband
infrastructure that delivers
services offering reliable
100 Mbps download
and100 Mbps upload
speeds
• Provide assistance to
households to support
internet access or digital
literacy
Drinking Water
• Build or upgrade facilities
and transmission,
distribution, and storage
systems
• Replace lead service lines
Wastewater
• Construct publicly- owned
treatment infrastructure
• Manage and treat
stormwater or subsurface
drainage water
• Facilitate water reuse
• Secure publicly-owned
treatment works