Pierce County Allocates Remaining ARPA Funds On COVID Relief

TACOMA, WA — The Pierce County Council allocated the last of the county's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding this week, spending millions to help local schools weather the COVID crisis and pay for new shelter spaces, among other expenditures.

According to a release from the council, the largest chunk of spending totals $5 million, set aside to purchase hotels, which will be converted into temporary shelter space for people living with homelessness.

A similar program is in the works for King County, which over the summer bought eight buildings to house the homeless.

The Pierce County Council also set aside another $1.2 million to increase shelter space through investments in tents and tiny houses.

Earlier this year, the council committed to a plan to end on-street homelessness by November, part of which included rapidly increasing available shelter space to make room for all of the county's estimated 1,005 residents experiencing homelessness.

The second-largest ARPA expenditure was a $4.15 budget amendment, which will help the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department pay for COVID testing and contact tracing investigations in local public and private schools.

Following the council's meeting Tuesday, Council Chair Derek Young tweeted the spending was needed to keep schools open, but that the money could have been saved with a higher vaccination rate and lower case counts.

"This should not be necessary," Young said. "We have a safe, effective, and free solution. The places with high vaccination rates have low case, hospitalization, and mortality rates."

It's been less than two months since classes resumed for the 2021-22 school year, but local schools have already seen hundreds of COVID-19 cases. The Puyallup School District, for example, has seen 202 cases across its 36 schools, and has had to send 1,331 students home to quarantine — so many that it recently updated its quarantine protocol to get those kids back in the classroom sooner.

Other ARPA spending highlighted by the council includes:

• 1.4 million for the county's Economic Development’s community navigator program.
• $350,000 to support foreclosure prevention through housing counseling.
• $100,000 for the First Five FUNdamentals Diaper Bank.
• $50,000 to Child Care Resources for a homeless child care program.
• $11,000 for the Children’s Home Society youth program.

Pierce County will receive a total of $175.8 million in pandemic response and recovery funding through the American Rescue Plan Act. As of Tuesday's meeting, the county has allocated all of the first round of funding, totaling $87.9 million, which the county received on May 19, 2021. The second half of the funding will be received in May 2022.

Earlier ARPA expenditures from the council included $15 million to address broadband access gaps in rural parts of the county, $5 million to support new businesses through technical assistance grants, and millions more for affordable housing, local food banks, and jobs programs.

In a statement, Council Chair Young said he was hopeful the spending has helped the community weather this difficult time, but cautioned that Pierce County residents still need to pull together to stamp out the pandemic.

“Since the start of the pandemic Pierce County has prioritized federal and local funds to support emergent public health needs,” Young said. “This latest allocation reinforces that support, but we can’t afford for this to continue. We need everyone to do their part to limit the spread of COVID by wearing masks and getting vaccinated if you can.”