Residents may not know how the city will use the remaining funds until early next year, even though Harris County and the city of Houston have already spent all of their combined $1.5 billion in federal pandemic relief funds ahead of the end-of-year deadline set by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.In March 2021, Congress approved the American Rescue Plan Act to hasten the nation’s recovery from the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus epidemic. Of that aid, almost $350 billion went to local governments to help them deal with the social and economic effects in their areas. Jurisdictions were given a great deal of latitude in how they used the funds.
The money must be spent before the end of 2026 and must be allocated and committed by the end of current year.ARPA financing for Harris County was $915 million, with interest added to bring the total to $996 million. Over $607 million was given to the city of Houston. Although the city refused to disclose its final spending amounts, officials informed the Landing that all funds had been allotted.
According to the city’s October report, the majority of its $472 million was spent to restore revenue lost during the economic slump brought on by the pandemic. To cover continuing services like solid trash, public works, police, and fire, that money was put to the city’s general fund.
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According to the Office of County Administration, Harris County utilized all of its federal funding for constituent services, including affordable housing, early childhood programs, and improved public safety.
In contrast, smaller neighboring cities that got significantly less funding made extensive use of federal assistance. The majority of the monies allocated to Pasadena and Galveston were used to upgrade drinking water quality-related infrastructure. Pearland used the majority for revenue replacement and police patrol.
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“The Federal Transit Administration awarded four grants totaling nearly $437 million in ARPA funding to the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County,” said Lester Gretsch, director of media relations.
The agency used that money, along with other COVID stimulus awards, to pay for operational expenditures like fuel, equipment upkeep, and driver salaries, as well as preventative steps to shield employees and passengers from COVID.
County priorities
Health, housing, jobs and education, justice and safety, and county operations were the five areas the Commissioners Court targeted with federal monies. In order to guarantee community involvement throughout its programs and to take into account those most affected by the pandemic, court members also developed a framework.
As is common in Texas counties, the Commissioners Court mostly concentrated on infrastructure throughout the decades the county was led by Republicans. Officials envisioned a more expansive role beyond supporting parks, highways, and flood control when Democrats took the majority in 2018.The Democratic-led court was able to invest in expanded social service initiatives, especially those that improved the safety net for the county’s unincorporated areas, thanks to the ARPA funds.A $9.1 million contract to quadruple enrollment in local union apprenticeships in the building and construction trades and establish new ones in the transportation and entertainment sectors was one of those investments. It was one of the nation’s biggest investments in union apprenticeship training programs.Additionally, county leaders funded $5 million in Holistic Assistance Response Teams to help address 911 calls involving mental illness, drug use, homelessness, and social welfare, and they launched a $6 million gun violence interruption program, which included $1 million for a man buyback scheme with the city.
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Additional instances include the expenditure of $34 million on indigent defense and over $18.8 million in grants to enhance the quality of child care via the county’s Early Learning Quality Networks.
In a statement, County Judge Lina Hidalgo stated, “I would like to see our most successful ARPA programs become permanent in Harris County within the next ten years.” The initiatives we launched with these funds are still going strong, such as expanding daycare options for families and parents, ensuring that children and families have access to wholesome food, offering affordable homes to all, and assisting locals in becoming homeowners.
The county has spent much of this year attempting to implement a guaranteed income program that would provide more than 1,900 low-income households with monthly $500 stipends, in what may be its most contentious use of ARPA funds. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the county over its first iteration of the $20 million program, arguing that even though it is being paid for by federal funds, itviolates the state constitution. Local leaders revamped the program in hopes of addressing those concerns, but Paxton again got the program blocked. The case still is being hashed out in state court.
Revenue replacement
The Landing requested the final list of allocated spending from Mayor John Whitmire s office. The Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, which oversees the ARPA dollars, has refused to share an accounting of the final allocations until reporting the final numbers to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Joshua Sanders, the city’s chief of intergovernmental relations, stated that the city decided not to begin any new projects in the most recent quarter due to a decision made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury late last year to require local governments to obligate, not just budget, ARPA funds by the end of 2024.
There’s been a lot of interest of, Hey, is there any money left? Could you throw some at this, project or this program that we’re doing? Sanders said. And so we’ve had to take in those requests and do kind of the analysis of cost-benefit. How has it been performing up to this point?
An onlinefederal databasedetailing how the city s ARPA dollars are used is only updated through June 30. According to the database, the city at that time had allocated $570 million and spent more than $551 million.
In an October overview, the Whitmire administration reported more than $569 million in expenditures through September.
Early pandemic dollars were spent to fill budget shortfalls of roughly$201 million in 2021, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. As of June, the city had used about three-quarters of its ARPA funding to replace revenues lost to the pandemic.
Some ARPA funds were spent on one-time purchases, such as new solid waste vehicles. Other projects have come to a close as the funding dried up, such as the Dinner to Home homelessness initiative that ended in June.
Whitmire this week said he asked department heads to tally what had not already been spent to recoup some of the funds, but the majority had already been obligated. He said he “unfortunately” inherited a list of projects that used the ARPA one-time funding for ongoing projects.
He would have preferred the funds go to one-time uses, such as improvements at the West Gray Multiservice Center or homelessness initiatives, he said. Instead, he said the majority of the funds were already dedicated, and the final unallocated dollars went to police overtime.
Programs the city wants to continue without ARPA funding will need a continued investment without federal dollars which could prove difficult as Houston faces a growing $200 million deficit in 2025.
The cadet retention program that originally gave $10,000 bonuses to more than 700 incoming police officers is the most recent initiativeto expand and pull from the general fund, costing Houston more than $800,000 next year.
Reporters Akhil Ganesh andJos Luis Mart nez contributed to this story.
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Houston, Harris County allocate all $1.5 billion in American Rescue Plan funding by deadline
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