Colorado Springs to receive $76 million in federal COVID recovery funds
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The second year of the COVID-19 pandemic means a second round of federal funding for continued pandemic recovery needs in the city.
Charae McDaniel, the city's chief financial officer, told the City Council during a work session Monday that the city will receive an allocation of $76 million from the American Rescue Plan Act that was approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in March.
McDaniel said that more specifics about how the money will be used was expected Tuesday. That afternoon, the Treasury Department sent a 150-page document providing the city with spending guidelines.
“Economic-related things, as well as revenue recovery," she said. "There’s also broad definitions for water and sewer infrastructure. But right now, that’s all we know.”
McDaniel said that the allocation includes $11.4 million for emergency rental assistance, slightly less than the $14.1 million received by the city for that purpose last year.
"We're still distributing that money through the end of this year," she said.
Elizabeth Quevedo, community impact director at Pikes Peak United Way, said that her agency helped distribute funds last year and will do so again this year.
"I think the need will be greater even though we're receiving less funding," she said. "We have about a million dollars worth of applications going in every week, just from El Paso County. So that kind of tells you how many people are applying for this relief. There's still funding available through that second source of funding, but we anticipate that it will be used up in the next few months."
Quevedo said that the United Way can help people apply online for assistance.
"With the eviction moratorium ending in June, people are going to start to panic, and there are a lot of people who owe back rent right now," she said. "The timeline from applying to actually getting funds can be anywhere from two weeks to six weeks."
Some of the new funding, McDaniel said, will be spent on financial assistance to restaurants and small businesses, and on helping citizens pay utility bills.
Many Colorado Springs Utility customers will pay higher bills for the rest of the year because of record high energy costs during a cold snap earlier this year.
"The restaurant, hospitality and tourism industries were hit hardest by the pandemic and they've been slower to recover," McDaniel said. "But I think the restaurants will bounce back soon."
McDaniel said that the city's budget is in good shape, partly because sales tax revenue collections are higher than anticipated.
People who want to apply in advance for assistance from this round of funding should call the United Way by dialing 2-1-1.
The American Rescue Plan Act is a nearly $2 trillion economic stimulus bill similar to the CARES Act approved at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
