Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes the Director of Development to enter into a Beneficiary Grant Agreement with Community Shelter Board (CSB) in an amount up to $7,398,138.00 of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to provide operating support for CSB’s Emergency Shelter Program and to pay for expenses starting January 1, 2023.
Ordinance 1201-2021 authorized the City of Columbus to accept and appropriate approximately $187,030,138.00 of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as signed into law by the President of the United States on March 11, 2021.
CSB provides emergency shelters for men, women, and children. Once in shelter, in addition to providing a secure, clean place to stay, emergency shelter programs provide meals, rehousing services, physical and behavioral healthcare, material assistance, referrals, and employment services. Shelters operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Children staying at the family shelters are supervised in an age-appropriate environment where they participate in developmental activities, receive homework help, childcare, and health services. The shelters that will receive these funds include Lutheran Social Services-Faith Mission, Maryhaven Engagement Center, Southeast Inc.-Friends of the Homeless, YWCA Family Center, and the YMCA Van Buren Center.
CSB and partners leverage significant additional funding from multiple sources to operate emergency homeless shelters. Surge funding from the City of Columbus in 2021 and 2022 helped the shelter partners to fill budget gaps and attract/retain high quality staff. This funding will assist with funding shelter operations in 2023, including, but not limited to: salaries/wages,
CSB and the shelter system has been negatively impacted by COVID-19 by reduced funding from other sources, higher than pre-COVID levels of service needs, and higher than pre-COVID expenses for following the Centers for Disease Control guidance about social distancing.
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