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American Rescue Plan Funding
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
The City of Missoula received a direct allocation of over $14 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to help fight the pandemic, maintain vital services, and invest in long-term growth.
- What is ARPA?
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ARPA is an acronym for the American Rescue Plan Act, which provides funding to address the pandemic. The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program, a part of the American Rescue Plan, delivers $350 billion to state, local, and Tribal governments across the country to support their response to and recovery from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
- How much funding did the City get?
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The City of Missoula received $14,192,996 directly. Additional funds outside our allocation include $13,018,234 for infrastructure and public works and $1,323,209 in HOME funds that to assist with housing, rental assistance, and similar programs.
- Why did the City of Missoula get direct funding?
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As a “metro city” with a population over 50,000, the City of Missoula received a direct allocation from the U.S. Treasury. Great Falls and Billings were the other two cities in Montana who received a direct allocation (other Montana cities receive their ARPA funding through the State). We received half of our total direct allocation in May 2021, and we are scheduled to receive the other half in May or June of 2022.
- How does the City decide where to spend the money?
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Treasury’s guidelines, and City priorities within those guidelines, have shaped our use of ARPA funding. The City of Missoula allocated approximately half of our ARPA funding in our FY22 budget process (approved by City Council at their 8/23/21 meeting). The City will budget the remainder of our ARPA direct allocation as part of our upcoming Fiscal Year 2023 budget process.
Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) ARPA Budget: $7,096,498
- Housing
- Public Safety
- Equity in our Community
- City operations/ pandemic transition
- Health Department
$3,383,116
- $1,849,116 Operation Shelter
- $700,000 Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- $834,000 Poverello Center VA Transitional Housing
- More housing project information (PDF)
$1,144,820
- $596,576 Mobile Support Team & Critical Incident Team
- $548,244 Personal Protective Equipment for Firefighters, Police and EMS
- More public safety project information (PDF)
$410,389
- $100,000 Parks & Recreation afterschool scholarships
- $73,529 BASE after school programming
- $9,600 Lowell Community Center
- $227,260 Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)
- More equity project information (PDF)
$1,108,077
- $481,433 information technology and capacity improvement
- $71,021 Facilities cleaning and filtration
- $239,601 Human Resources safety and security upgrades
- $81,357 Grants administration and reporting
- $234,665 for pandemic expenses from FY21
- More city operations project information (PDF)
$1,023,996
- Support for the City-County Health Department's pandemic response
Additional Funding
Direct Allocation $7,096,498
The City will budget the second half of our allocation for Fiscal Year 2023. Departments will be including their ARPA requests within their budget presentations to Council between June and August 2022. Find more information about the City's past budgets here, and tune into City Council meetings, and sign up for alerts.
Infrastructure and Public Works $13,018,234
The City of Missoula received a separate direct allocation specifically for water and sewer infrastructure projects. This federal funding flows through the State and is administered by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (MT DNRC). Our Public Works team is tasked with proposing projects to meet funding guidelines for our allocation and has also been awarded competitive ARPA Infrastructure grants.
- $10,107,938 direct allocation – We have until the Fall of 2022 to submit projects for MT DNRC’s allocation deadline of January 1, 2023. To date, the following projects have been approved: City Water Main Replacement project ($3,446,407) and Caras Park Storm Water Upgrades ($359,013).
- An additional $2,910,296 in competitive grants have been awarded to support the South Hills Storm Water project ($2 million) and the Grant Creek Realignment project ($910,296). Another round of MT DNRC competitive awards will be announced in Spring 2022.
Housing and Urban Development Programs $1,323,209
As a Participating Jurisdiction of HUD’s HOME program, we receive approximately $300,000 annually for housing projects that assist low- to moderate-income Missoulians in securing safe and affordable homes. We’re required to submit an allocation plan for the one-time 1.3 million direct allocation of HOME ARP funds.
City staff are working to identify community priorities for these funds within their allowable spending categories through community outreach and engagement efforts. Initial feedback has identified the following priorities:
- production and preservation of affordable housing
- purchase and development of non-congregate Shelter
- supportive services
Allowed Uses
Treasury intended ARPA funding to help:
- Support public health and COVID-19 mitigation efforts
- Address negative economic impacts caused by the pandemic
- Build a strong, resilient, and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity
- Replace lost public sector revenue, by allowing funding to be used for “the provision of government services”
ARPA guidelines give cities and counties the flexibility to both respond to the negative economic impacts of the pandemic and utilize once in a lifetime funding for strategic investments.