American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Successes

Office of Jani Hitchen, Pierce County Council, District 6 announcement.

This county received $175.8 million in ARPA funding, and we worked very hard as a Council to invest these dollars in ways that allow the county to come out of the pandemic better than when we went in. While the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still felt today, and we mourn the lives lost, the work we have done to use these funds to lift up, support and invest in our county will live on far past the last 4 years.

Some of the biggest and longest lasting impacts are in the space of housing and homelessness, community needs and economic development. 

• In housing, we invested in several multi-family housing units, building and refurbishing homes, and investments in program to increase homeownership.
• In homelessness, we invested millions in rental supports during the pandemic to keep people housed and landlords whole. Purchased a hotel in partnership with other jurisdictions, property and other investments in sheltering and permanent supportive housing. We stood up safe parking and mobile units like shower/hygiene supports that could go to where our unhoused neighbors were receiving services. We also started a process to locally create a unified regional approach to homelessness, as we cannot solve this alone.
• In community needs, we invested in services to help feed people across the county, increase digital literacy, provide supports for youth to help them begin the social recovery needed after a year of re-mote learning and increased supports to programs that worked with residents that had made mistakes and were touched by the criminal justice system.
• In economic development, we invested in broadband in the rural parts of our county, as we found that access to high-speed internet truly is a game changer for personal finances, education and even access to healthcare. We invested in and partnered with other jurisdictions to build sewer or water projects to help them increase affordable housing and their local economy. We invested heavily with our own Business Accelerator program that has helped launch over 500 new small businesses across the county. We also helped existing businesses stay solvent during challenging times through business assistance and innovation grants.

I am truly proud of the work this Council did to think about how we are leaving a lasting mark as we come out of this time in our world history. It took community partnerships, leadership from cities and towns across the county and county staff to really determine how to make some of our ideas a reality. We will see the impacts of these investments in new homeowners, new businesses, individuals and families that stayed healthy because they were fed and housed; all because of these investments. If you are curious about the dollar amounts or about who we worked with you can see that info in our ARPA Expenditure and Status report (it starts on page 6 of the packet).

To me, that is exactly what I was hoping for with these funds.