Craig to present Manchester’s plan for $43 million in federal funds | Politics
Mayor Joyce Craig will present Manchester’s proposal for use of $43.2 million in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan to city aldermen this week, plans ranging from an affordable housing trust fund to a community health and violent crime reduction program.
Manchester has received $21.6 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) so far, and is expected to receive another $21.6 million in May 2022.
The funds have to be allocated by the end of 2024 and projects using the funds must be completed by 2026,
“My hope is that we could get approval from the board (Tuesday) night, but it does need to go through the finance process here in the city so that could be another couple of weeks to a month depending on when our next meeting is,” Craig said. “Ultimately our goal is to get these funds and programs out into the community as soon as possible, so that we help our residents and small businesses and come back from COVID.”
Included in the recommendations is a community health and violent crime reduction program ($13,581,547 over five years), which would fund 13 community health workers (CHWs) to work with Manchester police to take over check condition calls typically handled by officers and act as a hub for addressing neighborhood-level health concerns.
According to city officials, evidence shows that less than 10% of check condition calls require any kind of police response, and this new program would reduce the number of unnecessary calls taken by police.
“They’re not necessarily calls that the police department has to go and respond to,” said Craig. “That will allow the police department to go out and do more community work.”
The CHWs would be ward-based, with an additional worker dedicated to assisting seniors.
The proposal also funds park rangers to help make city parks safer.
Additionally, the programs fund investigative overtime and foot patrols for Manchester police to address violent crime, and funds the successful Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Team (ACERT) program.
Also included in the recommendations are:
• Manchester Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Initiative: This program funds ($1,043,351 over five years) the Healthy Corner Stores Project to increase the ability of local corner stores to offer healthy options;
• Affordable Housing Trust Fund: Makes investments ($3 million over five years) in the existing Affordable Housing Trust Fund to increase access to safe affordable housing. These funds can be made available to organizations to develop new affordable, transitional, and supportive non-congregate housing projects, as well as provide grants for individuals to apply for assistance in order to stay in their homes as they age, grants for emergency home repairs for low income individuals, grants for landlords to make improvements to their properties if their properties remain affordable for a prearranged time, make their units eligible for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and other eligible uses to increase the amount of affordable housing within the city.
• Director of Homelessness Initiatives: Funding will be used to continue funding the Director of Homelessness Initiatives position through 2026;
• Job Resource Coaching & Higher Education Partnership: In partnership with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), this initiative would provide scholarships to eligible graduates of Manchester public high schools to attend SNHU.
• Small Business Grants & Program Assistance: This program would widen the eligibility and uses for small business grants to not only cover demonstrated losses due to COVID-19, but improvements to outdoor spaces and additional support for business planning and technical assistance.
Other proposed uses include water and sewer infrastructure projects and a newborn home visit program.
Craig advocated for direct assistance to local communities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and thanked the members of New Hampshire’s Congressional delegation for getting the American Rescue Plan passed.
A community survey was conducted for input from residents on what they would like to see the funds used on, with 156 people responding.
Federal guidance has been issued on how the money can be used — which impacted some of the survey responses.
“An example is roads,” said Craig. “We heard back from folks in the community to repave roads. We can’t use this money to solely just reconstruct or repave roads. That’s not allowed, but it is allowed for projects for water, sewer, drainage issues, and then after that paving the road.”
