American Rescue Plan Act Funds Provide Opportunity for Citywide Input

By: Bobby Tugbiyele, Lowell City Council At-Large Candidate

With the recent publishing of guidelines regarding the spending of federal funds received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), communities all over the country will receive financial relief from the COVID-19 pandemic. This relief package, to be spent over the next several years, addresses opportunities to invest in our workers, families, education, small businesses, veterans, transit, public health, municipalities and more.

I strongly support the creation of a series of Community Input Forums designed by topic to collect feedback on city-recommended priorities, as well as priorities and investment areas identified as a result of input by Lowell residents and business owners.

Ideas for Community Input Forum Topic Areas to consider include, but are not limited to:

• Small Business & Economic Revitalization:

  • Bolstering incentives and subsidies for local entrepreneurs to occupy vacant downtown storefronts.

  • Hiring of a full-time, dedicated Economic Development Business Coordinator to strengthen engagement, collaboration and retention of existing downtown and neighborhood businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic.

  • Critical Urban Infrastructure investment in alternative high-speed, affordable municipal broadband.

  • Rededicated focus on workforce development and employment training programs specifically targeting communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

  • Grants to mitigate the financial hardship faced by small businesses during the pandemic.

• Public Health:

  • Planning and analysis audit of City of Lowell Health Department’s to improve the design and execution of health and public health programs including through use of targeted consumer outreach, improvements to data or technology infrastructure, impact evaluations, and data analysis.

  • Hiring of multilingual Community Health Coordinators within the City of Lowell Health Department focused on health promotion to address the social determinants of health and helping community members access health services.

  • Assessment and aggressive remediation of public health risks and hazards within the city's public housing.

  • Align strategies with the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) created from the Greater Lowell Health Alliance Needs Assessment.

• Housing Insecurity:

  • Accelerating permanent housing production, wrap-around stabilization and shelter transformation opportunities as outlined in the “Housing First” strategy of the City Manager’s Task Force on Homelessness and Sustainable Housing.

  • Increasing supply and diversity of housing that is affordable and high-quality.

  • Aggressive funding and increasing access/flexibility to residential counseling, down-payment and closing cost assistance programs to mitigate barrier(s) to home ownership for socio-economically burdened communities.

• Green Space & Neighborhood Integrity:

  • Enhance downtown and neighborhood aesthetic and attractiveness through planting more street trees, updating/replacing benches and signage, and aggressive cleaning, repair, and maintenance of sidewalks as well as building facades.

  • Optimizing the pedestrian experience and improving accessibility and ADA compliance across the city.

  • Motivate and incentivize residents to protect and enhance green spaces city-wide.

  We must be prepared and plan to start these conversations now to account for losses and vulnerabilities in our social and physical infrastructure experienced and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, as a community, we must bridge our collective ideas with policies toward strengthening our future via investments, infrastructure, and services.