Here's How Lakewood Used Its CARES Act Funding

LAKEWOOD, WA — When the federal government passed the CARES Act early in the pandemic, funds were only given directly to city jurisdictions with populations of half a million people or more.

It seemed like Lakewood, whose population hovers around 60,000 would be left without any funds of its own. But in May, state leaders announced they would share a portion of their funding with local jurisdictions. Split between two rounds of funding from Olympia, Lakewood received a total of $2,685,150 to help combat the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Now, a new report from the city manager is detailing exactly how that money was used.

As passed, CARES Act money has to be spent on expenses that meet the following three criteria:

• Necessary expenditures caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency
• Expenditures not accounted for in the budget
• Expenditures incurred from March 1 to Nov. 30.

In addition, the city manager says the City of Lakewood created a set of priorities of their own to determine how money should be spent. They were:

• Individual and Family Economic Resilience
• Business Assistance
• Vital Government Services

With those commitments in mind, here is how Lakewood ultimately divided up their pandemic spending:

$861,000, about 32 percent of the city's total funds, was spent on programs to support individual and family economic resilience. In particular, the city manager says money largely went to rental assistance: about $621,000 was given to the Living Access Support Alliance to pay rent for families making $60,000 a year or less. The remainder went to community groups and non-profits offering safe services — like Communities in Schools Lakewood, the YMCA, and Pierce County AIDS Foundation — and 23 licensed, local childcare providers

Related: Stimulus Payments, Small Business Help Headed To WA: What To Know

Another $1.04 million was spent on business assistance programs. One expenditure was the Small Business Coronavirus Relief Fund Grant, which supported locally-owned businesses with 20 or fewer employees. Ultimately, the city spent $667 thousand on the program to support 72 Lakewood small businesses. The other $370,000 of that spending went to the Lakewood Commercial Landlord Coronavirus Relief Fund Grants. Those grants gave up to $5,000 each month per tenant for each location a commercial landlord managed, for up to six-and-a-half months of assistance.

For the third guiding principle, maintaining vital government services, the city set aside $787,000. Most of that, about $541,000, was used to make city facilities coronavirus-safe, adding next technology for remote meetings and buying personal protective equipment for employees and the public attending city events.

Finally, $245,872 of the city's cares act funds were split between West Pierce Fire and Rescue, Pierce County Library, Lakewood Water District and Nourish Pierce County.

An even more detailing breakdown of Lakewood's CARES spending can be found by visiting the city's CARES Act Dashboard.