Billions of Dollars From the American Rescue Plan Act are Coming to Nebraska. How Should Funds be Spent?
By Molly Ashford
Billions of dollars will soon flow into Nebraska through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). On Nov. 21, Sens. Michaela Cavanaugh (LD-06) and Terrell McKinney (LD-11) met with a small but vocal group of citizens in the gym of the Adams Park Community Center. They asked the senators questions about the ARPA process and shared suggestions for how the funds should be spent. Three central priorities emerged: mental health, economic growth and affordable housing.
Both the City of Omaha and Douglas County have identified the expansion of mental health services as a top priority. The county board voted in early November to approve over $727,000 for various mental health programs, funded mostly by ARPA.
Wayne Hudson, the current Douglas County chief deputy sheriff and a candidate for sheriff, proposed repurposing the youth detention facility at 42nd and Woodworth, slated to be replaced by the new juvenile detention center downtown, into a mental health facility. Though Sen. Cavanaugh agreed that this would help with the crisis fueled by a lack of mental health beds in the state, she worried that ongoing staffing troubles could sideline such a proposal.
“When it comes to mental health beds, the question comes back to staffing,” she said. “We can invest in building all the wonderful facilities we want, but we just don’t have enough people to staff them.” Sen. Cavanaugh suggested creating a pilot scholarship program to encourage students to go into the behavioral health field.
Sen. McKinney also doubled down on his plans to cultivate entrepreneurs and business owners in North Omaha and beyond, saying that he sees building an economic base as a key tactic to addressing poverty.
In January, Sen. McKinney introduced the Innovation Hub Act (LB450), which would allow specific institutions and organizations to create state-funded centers for entrepreneurs and business owners to connect with investors, research opportunities, training, advice and mentorship. Though the bill never made it out of committee, McKinney believes that ARPA funds could help get the project off the ground. “Even if you own a business, a lot of times, we go into business without a full understanding of what that means,” he said.
“I hope to have an information hub within our community to help those that need extra assistance managing the books for applying for a government grant.”
One audience member who works for a nonprofit organization said that grassroots nonprofit organizations need a similar hub to access resources that have historically only been available to larger, well-established nonprofits.
“There will be more money that comes in, and it’s likely that the same entities will get access to that money because they know how to navigate the system,” she said. “This could be the time to level the playing field for everybody. If there was some funds to connect grassroots organizations to the infrastructure that already exists—like what we have been talking about with entrepreneurs—that same thing is needed.”
The conversation turned to affordable housing, another state and city priority. Omaha is experiencing what many advocates have deemed an affordable housing crisis: an April report from Front Porch Investments found that nearly 40% of households in East Omaha are cost burdened, meaning that they pay more than 30% of their income towards housing. Units that are affordable are often in need of substantial repairs, and landlords tend to pick higher-income renters even in affordable complexes.
Bri Full, a community organizer, suggested incentivizing developers to build more affordable housing units through Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF gives tax breaks to developers to build in blighted areas, which has led to recent controversies over the demolition of multiple affordable apartment complexes to make way for market-rate and luxury units in areas that do not appear blighted, like the Blackstone neighborhood.
“There are so many developments going up in Omaha, and I wish they would have more incentive to build affordable housing instead of these market-rate units,” Full said.
Other attendees talked about the potential for new developments to include options for both home rental and ownership, while another suggested expanding the Omaha Lead Superfund area to allow more people to get their soil tested.
Black Votes Matter and Sen. McKinney will hold another town hall to discuss ARPA funding on Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. at the Fabric Lab, 2514 N. 24th St
Sens. McKinney and Cavanaugh said that distributing ARPA funds will be a top priority when they return to the legislature in January. Sen. Cavanaugh estimates that the bill will pass in late March and organizations will be able to apply for grants in mid to late summer.
