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Date: 12/8/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During a meeting on Dec. 2, the Northampton City Council unanimously moved to accept $21.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that must be committed to by Dec. 31, 2024, and fully expended by Dec. 31, 2026.
Mayor David Narkewicz provided an update on the ARPA Fund timeline, approach, and top line data from the Oct. 1 survey that the city launched to help structure the city’s use of ARPA funding based on the community feedback. The survey closed on Nov. 28.
Beyond that, the presentation reinforced the goals of ARPA spending, one of which included prioritizing projects, people, businesses, and organizations with a focus on those most impacted by COVID-19.
With City Council President Gina-Louis Sciarra becoming the new mayor-elect, Narkewicz said that the goal now will be to transition ARPA coordination and planning to Sciarra so she can form an ARPA advisory committee sometime in January. The goal of this committee will be to gather more community input to help advise her on the project selection process. Sciarra is officially being sworn in as mayor on Jan. 3. By the spring of 2022, projects will be selected, funded and initiated.
“This is principally a COVID [-19] recovery fund, and there’s actually four very discreet categories of ways that the funds can be spent,” said Narkewicz. According to city and state law, the four possible categories for spending include: responding to public health emergency or its negative economic impact; paying workers who are providing essential work; providing government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue; and making necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
According to Narkewicz, the survey really touched on the aspects of the public health emergency category. “The survey was really looking broadly at the area of COVID [-19] recovery, COVID [-19] impact, so category one was really a key area for the survey,” added Narkewicz.
The survey, which aimed to understand the pandemic’s impacts across the city and what priorities could be explored when approaching recovery, reached 1,460 people – with nine residents opting to take the survey in Spanish.
While a final report on the data is still imminent, Narkewicz was able to provide some general topline results from the survey. According to initial results, while most stakeholders in Northampton reported their mental, social, and emotional health during the pandemic as “excellent” or “good,” one in five respondents shared that their household was doing “fair” or “poor” in terms of mental, emotional and social health.
Furthermore, mental health-related issues topped out as one of Northampton’s major or moderate problems throughout the pandemic, with 28 percent of respondents saying they feel nervous, anxious or on edge. Eighteen percent said they are feeling down, depressed or hopeless, 16 percent said they are feeling lonely or isolated, while 13 percent cited access to mental health services and medical services as problems.
The pandemic also created some financial worries for Northampton residents, according to the survey. According to Narkewicz, 46 percent of respondents reported that COVID-19 impacted them financially in some way. Economic support and providing remote support to extended family members were noted as major or moderate problems facing Northampton households. Nineteen percent of respondents reported that someone in their household accessed unemployment insurance, while 7 percent took advantage of food assistance. Seven percent of respondents said it was somewhat or very difficult to access unemployment.
When it came to schooling, over 360 respondents indicated that they have school-aged children. Of those respondents, 50 percent reported that the pandemic had a negative impact on their children’s education, and 33 percent said it had a major negative impact.
Out of all the choices, the majority of respondents – around 52 percent – said that services for people currently experiencing homelessness should be a top priority for ARPA spending, while support for more affordable housing and support for small businesses were considered critical regarding city-wide community needs.
According to Sciarra, the committee that is formed in January will be asked to help initiate public forums so as many people as possible can provide input about where they would like to see money facilitated. “The committee will be made up of community members with experience with these allowed areas of use, but people who will not be applying themselves for these funds,” said Sciarra. “I would also like to have representation from the council on this.”
The $21 million is part of the bill that President Joe Biden signed on March 11, which is providing $350 billion in emergency funding to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments around the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The commonwealth is receiving $3.4 billion of that federal aid.
"I want to acknowledge that the survey results indicate a lot of pain and suffering in our community, and it’s pretty profound” said Councilor James Nash. “I think we as councilors have been hearing about it … but to see it represented so starkly in these numbers … I think what we’re seeing is there is a lot of hurt and suffering.”
Residents can learn more about the ARPA presentation by visiting https://northamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18627/ARPA-Survey-overview-for-City-Council-12-2-21.