LYNN — The City Council voted to approve allocations for the remaining $21.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding Thursday. The funding was spread across 40 different projects, but emphasized affordable housing as a top priority.
Between the first round of ARPA allocations, which City Council voted to approve in July, and the second round of ARPA funding allocations, the city dedicated $73 million to a variety of projects and organizations.
According to an Op-ed written by Mayor Jared Nicholson, 80 different organizations and projects applied for funding this time around, requesting close to $90 million total.
“All were given serious consideration and decisions were made based on the expressed need in the area in which the funds will be spent,” Nicholson said.
Although city officials took a significant number of proposals into consideration, housing took priority in the second wave of ARPA allocations.
$10.7 million in total went toward housing projects, of which, $5.5 million were earmarked for the community housing plan of Essex County Community Organization, Neighbor to Neighbor, and Lynn United for Change, the three organizations who protested outside City Hall in October demanding a $18 million slice of the remaining ARPA funds.
The second-largest sum of round two funding went to Lynn Water and Sewer Commission, who received $3.9 million to replace and upgrade water mains throughout the city. Additionally, $3 million of the funds went to the Lynn Community Health Center’s expansion of their urgent care, medical, behavioral health, dental, and substance use disorder services.
The remainder of the funds were distributed between food security, with $1.3 million split between the Phoenix Food Hub, The Build a Garden program, and the New Lynn Coalition’s food aid program. Almost $1 million was earmarked for workforce development, and another $1.3 million to other nonprofits for a variety of projects citywide.
The Mayor’s Office, with the help of City Council, arrived at these allocations after months of community outreach programs, such as the Vision Lynn survey, the summer’s Lynnside Out event, and a public hearing earlier this Fall. Councilor-at-large Brian Field, City Council’s ARPA liaison, opened ARPA discussions Thursday night by applauding the mayor’s office and City Council’s work toward thoughtfully allocating the funds.
“The process that our elected city officials, the mayor and his team and the Lynn City Council, chose to follow, was second to no other municipality in the Commonwealth. It was inclusive. It was transparent, and it did what it was designed to do —help those that were hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Field said. “Our duties as elected officials is to make the best decisions we can for those we represent and I am confident that this process has exceeded our own expectations because it was inclusive and transparent […] today is a day that we will look back on for generations because of the decisions we made together.”
