PHOENIX — Maricopa County has a ways to go before it spends all of its $435 in American Rescue Plan grant funds.
Last week, the county’s Board of Supervisors approved about $25 million in spending in ARPA funds for a variety of purposes, consistent with their approved priorities.
Maricopa County Correctional Health will receive $500,000 for hazard pay. That department also will be allocated $200,000 for PPE purchases.
Juvenile Probation will get hazard pay increases totaling $75,000. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office ($1.4 million), Superior Court ($100,000) and Adult Probation ($6,000) also will get more hazard pay from ARPA.
Human Services-Homelessness Services is getting $11 million for more shelter beds. The Homelessness Shelter and Services is getting a separate allocation of $2.53 million for additional homelessness beds and COVID isolation.
The county’s Non-Profit Assistance Program will get about $8.74 million.
Funding for the Workforce Support for Job Seeker Initiative will increase by $521,000.
Also, six departments will receive Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Funds, led by MCSO, which will receive $1.4 million.
ARPA was signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11. It’s not to be confused with the CARES Act of March 2020 or the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed into law by then-PresidentTrump in December of last year.
In an opinion piece he penned in August, Board Chair Jack Sellers spelled out some of Maricopa County’s priorities for its ARPA funds:
• Continued public health response, with dollars allocated to new health clinics and vaccine availability and education for all;
• Affordable housing and home repairs as inexpensive housing is in short supply;
• Workforce support;
• Rent and mortgage assistance;
• Homelessness prevention and mitigation;
• Small and micro-sized business assistance;
• Behavioral health and addiction recovery;
• Services for seniors and people with disabilities;
• Support for people impacted by domestic violence.
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.