An introduction to ARPA in Worcester with Gina Plata-Nino

Part 1/8 from our mini-season: ARPA Funding in Worcester

Public Hearing is back this week with another mini-series. During the series, we will be talking with several voices in the community about the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and how the approximately $146 million that Worcester has received from the federal government will be distributed throughout different funding areas in the city: Affordable Housing, Social Services, Mental Health, Business Assistance, and Arts & Culture. In our first episode with Gina Plata-Nino we will be giving an introduction to ARPA and answering some of the questions that have been raised in the community; what is ARPA? How can the money be spent? How can we hold the city accountable for using these funds? In next week’s episode, we will be focusing on how funding can be distributed to priority populations in Worcester to promote equity within the City.

Public Hearing is a podcast from Action! by Design about our home city of Worcester, Massachusetts and the people we should be listening to—residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. Our mission is to cultivate community through equity, inclusion, and design, and that work starts at home.

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Transcript for this episode

Joshua Croke (00:01):

Hello Worcester and the world. This is Joshua Croke, your host of Public Hearing, a podcast and radio show about Worcester and the people we should be listening to as we participate in change work; residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. On Public Hearing, we engage community members addressing social problems in a way that centers, equity, justice and the pursuit of joy-filled futures. For everyone, we are kicking off a new series to talk about the approximately 146 million coming into the city through the American Rescue Plan Act also known as ARPA. Yes, you heard correctly. The city of Worcester is receiving about 146 million in federal aid. So what is ARPA? How can that money be spent? How are we going to hold the city accountable to using these funds? What do people in our community think we should be spending this money on?

Joshua Croke (00:50):

We're talking about all this and more in our upcoming episodes. Public Hearing hopes to bring community voices into critical conversations that impact our city. And this is a big one. If you follow the show, we recently had Gina Plata-Nino a leader in the Worcester Together effort and the Latino Empowerment Organizing Network (LEON) and an attorney in the city. On the show, we talk with Gina and other folks in the community about the formation of the Latino Advisory Commission in the city and how to ensure our boards and commissions effectively represent the interests of our residents in that chat. Gina mentioned ARPA and has been a strong advocate for, or how these funds will be utilized in our community. So we brought Gina back to kick off our conversations and to introduce you, our listeners, to the who, what, when, where, why and how of ARPA. This is the Public Hearing podcast. Gina, welcome back to Public Hearing. Before we dive into ARPA, is there anything additional you'd like to share with our listeners about you and your work?

Gina Plata-Nino (01:46):

Josh, thank you so much for having me glad to be here. There are just so many things going on. I, I will say that that besides ARPA, we have many opportunities right now with other budgets going on at the federal level, at the state level here at the local level as well to do advocacy. But I think ARPA really is on our minds in our forefront. So I'll let you get started with our questions.

Joshua Croke (02:08):

Great. Thank you. So for our listeners, I'm gonna go through an overview of ARPA. And we all know the pandemic has been a seriously damaging time in our lives. We have, and are continuing to experience a collective trauma due to COVID 19 that I we're gonna be unraveling for many years to come in this hardship, people of color immigrants, low age workers and low income families have experienced disproportionate ne negative impacts. And I want to name here that much like conversations about privilege and systemic racism, the acknowledgement of a disproportionate impact on certain people does not Dega negate or de the negative impact felt by everyone. However, as we are a show about equity centered solutions, what this tells us is that there needs to be an appropriate response that acknowledges that certain groups have been most impacted and need unique supports, especially when those groups have been historically excluded from decisions like funding priorities.

Joshua Croke (03:03):

So in March of 2021, president Biden signed into law, the American rescue plan act of 2021 ARPA. This law was created to expedite the us recovery due to the economic and health effects caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. The law established the Corona virus, state and local fiscal recovery funds program, which was launched by the us department of the treasury in may of last year. Funding has been provided to government entities in two trenches, 50% in may of 2021 and the remaining 50% to be delivered a year later, which is coming up. The goal of these funds is to provide eligible state local and tribal governments with a substantial infusion of resources to meet the pandemic response needs and rebuild a stronger, more equitable economy as the country recovers. There are some eligible uses for ARPA, which we'll talk with Gina about today, including support pub supporting public health expenditures, addressing negative economic impacts caused by, by the public health emergency, replacing lost public sector revenue, providing premium pay for essential workers and investing in water, sewer and broadband Inver infrastructure here in Worcester, we're receiving approximately 146 million from the us department of the treasury and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts related to ARPA in the 2021 ARPA coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds.

Joshua Croke (04:25):

At the end of last year, the city hosted a series of summer and fall 2021 community needs input sessions to help inform potential uses of the ARPA funds in different neighborhoods throughout the city. In addition to an online survey covering the same questions, discussed at the in-person and input sessions. In our next episode, we're gonna be specifically talking with Nellie Medina, a local organizer, an activist about community engagement, as it relates to ARPA dollars and mechanisms for ensuring residents are represented in this funding. And related to that, and today we're gonna be talking about how Worcester has been developing their plans for determining uses for ARPA dollars. The city's establishing ad hoc committees to review various priorities and grant applications within core areas, social services, mental health, business assistance, and arts and culture. Additionally, there are going to be committees overseen by other city commissions committees and task forces, including housing, sustaining housing, first grants, Worcester arts grants, and job training quoted from the city's website@Worcesterma.gov slash ARPA.

Joshua Croke (05:28):

They say the mission of these committees is to provide insight in the prioritization of grant applications to help ensure that grant awards are representative of the community and meet the overall goals and priorities set by the city and federal government, including, but not limited to those most disproportionately impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic, especially low income communities and communities of color. So Gina given that very long winded introduction of ARPA and how it applies to the city of Worcester, what are some of the questions, comments, concerns, considerations that are on your mind that you'd like to bring forward for listeners today?

Gina Plata-Nino (06:06):

Before I answer that, Josh, I just really wanna acknowledge what you said that just because certain we're acknowledging that certain communities were affected the most, it doesn't ne negate the, the effect that everyone has had on this. And I love what you said about collective trauma, because it really is trauma. So to answer your questions, some of the questions we've been getting is how much, how much money would organizations be able to apply for to create system change? What are these communities look like? A lot of the questions when we talk about a equity, which is what ARPA is, I know that you gave that very long list about infrastructure and employment and, and so on, but the main reason for ARPA it's main goal that we need to make sure not to lose this focus is that it's primarily for those communities and people who are affected the most.

Gina Plata-Nino (06:53):

So take a look at Worcester and what that means, right. Data and what are those communities? I just wanna make sure that that's in the forefront. So that's a major question that we have been getting from folks, because like you said, well, all of us have been affected, but let's be honest. All of us have a little bit more privilege than others. A lot of individuals primarily are, you know, latinx and Black brothers and sisters haven't experienced this for a long time is, is that some of us are now being in the same boat as they are. Right. so I think it's important for us to highlight. So that's sort of the question like, well, who, who, who is the decision maker, right? You talk a lot about these subcommittees, how much power are they actually going to have? Are they going to do grant review as we think about when you sit at foundations and so on another major question and who will be eligible, is it, you know, Joe down the street could say, like, I have a great idea to help my community, or are we going to, once again, probably support those ongoing large organizations who can submit the right grant application and say the right things to get this money.

Gina Plata-Nino (07:57):

So those are sort of questions that are percolating among like community members around ARPA and who's in it. And what it means

Joshua Croke (08:07):

As someone who is very passionate and works in like participatory change, work, really looking at leading any effort to address challenges by co-creating solutions with those most acted. I think one of the, the challenges that I pose to the city, capital C you know, our municipal government is always to think about how are we resourcing community engagement efforts and how are we providing support for people interested in doing this work, who feel that there are a handful of barriers to them being involved, whether it's feeling like you don't have enough, like background or knowledge or education in the topic areas, because as you and I both know, entering city council meetings or conversations around funding get very jargony. And so one of the things that we try and do with Public Hearing with this show is to, to introduce folks to some of the things that are being said and unravel them a little bit. So folks feel like they're better able to engage. And even as like the host of this show, I learn so much from the guests that we have on and, and, and so appreciative of that benefit and being able to dedicate and give the time, invest in the, in like cultivating learning around these issues. So what are some things that you might say to folks who are interested in getting involved, but have some of those fears or aversions at, at doing so

Gina Plata-Nino (09:28):

Don't undersell yourself. Your lived experience is meaningful and valuable. Think of about not just the city, but organizations at large pay, sometimes millions of dollars and consultants to talk to community individuals. And I, that literally happened to me a month ago with a health equity organizations that they were, they were doing that sort of I'm like, why, why did you spend that money? You could have just asked a whole bunch of individuals from the community. And there is all the work that you're going to spend years instead of trying to disseminate. So please your lived experience is meaningful. I call you lived experience consultant. No one knows the needs of your community, of your neighborhood, of your family, better than you do. Don't be intimidated by a lot of the acronyms ask people what that means. And I can tell you, because it happens to me half of the time, I'm like, oh goodness, I forgot that I'm in my own alphabet soup.

Gina Plata-Nino (10:24):

Don't be afraid to hold. Especially our elective officials accountable. I Ike on the word elected, they are there to serve you. We still live in a democratic process for the people by the people. And that means that we get to hold up accountable every election year. Every single moment you can pick up the phone, did, you know, four phone calls at the city level will make someone pay attention that is power and you have power. And we don't longer have civics at schools, which is part of the reason that people might be very disconnected, but with the internet, there are just so many things out there. And I'll say that with the caveat, thinking that people have time to spend time sort of Googling. But I'm happy to provide you with some like very strong links, or even with your show, Josh, like, I, I do this, I listen to these shows when I'm driving, when I'm walking, when I'm trying to do things again, I'm, I'm counting on my privilege that I can do this, but they are some ways to get involved. And I will say the last thing is, show up, let your face be known. And you as a resident of the city have power because you count,

Joshua Croke (11:31):

Thank you. I, I, can't under state the importance of like voting in local elections, like all politics as local. This is an incredible way to hold our elected officials accountable. And also we are in a time of transition in Worcester that as for folks who know me personally, I'm very invested in pursuing what it would look like to review the charter of the city and look at how do we actually create pathways for more democratic process? You know, there is a, a barrier to who sits in the power chair as the city manager is an unelected official you know, who is hired by the city council, which is unelected body, but there are structural barriers for, to, you know, getting in, in getting involved. And I think that that's an important thing to, to acknowledge and address. And, you know, as we talk about this, the city's survey that they did in the community input sessions.

Joshua Croke (12:26):

And again, we're talking with Nellie Medina in our next episode, a little bit about community engagement, but I just wanna name for folks who year that 331 people responded to the online survey and just over 200 people attended the in-person sessions in a city of over 200,000 residents. And to the point that you're making Gina of like, do people have time to invest in doing, you know, these multi-hour long sessions is, are con considerations such as like childcare people's work schedules, you know, across like our diverse workforce in the community, are those things being acknowledged and supported so that people can participate in our, in our decision making processes or our community input information sessions. I think that that is such like a critical need is like increasing and having an expectation of what representation from the community looks like. In some cases before we move forward, like what is our expectation for getting an honest representation of our community involved in the process of giving input for moving to certain next stages.

Joshua Croke (13:37):

And that comes with the caveat, obviously of we have a certain amount of time to allocate the funds for ARPA. I believe it's 20, 24. And then we have until 20, 26 to spend that money in our, in our communities, a so related to spending telegram article from earlier this month in March indicate indicated that the city has spent approximately 8% or 12.5 million of the ARPA money. So far 76% of that money. So about nine and a half million went to, and this is a quote from the article recouping lost revenue during the pandemic due to decreased permit fees, ho to health slash meals, taxes, motor vehicles, excise taxes, and convention center and parking fees. While this is an allowed use of ARPA funds, according to the fed community groups have pushed back on the city and how they're prioritizing getting money into the community. How might you address the issue of setting priorities with funds like this coming into a community

Gina Plata-Nino (14:35):

Well issue. And I think it's interconnected to why people are not involved, because if you're seeing again, larger organizations with big lobbying who don't have to go through the community process that can just walk into a room and say, Hey, I need a million dollars for X, Y, Z. What about all the other organizations, grassroots people who have been working during COVID putting their lives at address to make our communities better? So that's sort of part of the reason why people are like, why am I invested if always the same round around way, which is exciting, which is why I'm excited that the city has listened and wants to do things differently. And so the priorities you asked, why people were not engaged because we wanna throw out a program without getting community input. And that doesn't work like that because we haven't asked the people we're trying to reach what would be the best way to reach them.

Gina Plata-Nino (15:25):

And similarly with priorities, you said 325, right? The subcommittee that have been created, ideally, they're the makeup of the city of Worcester, but that comes again with certain caveats, who are the people who found out about this? I know there was a lot of outreach who are going to make up and not just the makeup of these subcommittees, but how much power are they actually going to have and how much transparency you ask, why people don't sort of believe in system is because, and I know this for a fact, the city works extremely hard. I can see that the employees work extremely hard around this, but are people seeing every step of the way, you know, they don't have the resources or, you know, people are just at capacity that they're not detailing like every single minute on Twitter saying, like, we just select a so.

Gina Plata-Nino (16:10):

And so we just spend 10 hours researching the be platform to ex execute these grants. And so, because this isn't communicated, people feel like, oh, you're hiding something. So on both sides, there's a lack of trust because there's a lack of transparency. So I think the first guideline to set priorities, full transparency, this is how much this particular subcommittee is going to have. This is how long they will have. This is what the RFP, I mean, we just look acronym, alphabet soup. This is how much the request for proposal will be. This is how easy we're going to make it. And these are the guidelines. So everyone understands that if you receive funding, if I receive funding, I received it because I met X, Y, Z, not because, and I'm not saying that this happens in our city, not because I have an inside view that I can just very easily say, pick up the phone and say, give me X amount of money and cut through the line that everyone else is in.

Joshua Croke (17:08):

One of the pieces in there that I think is so important is the question of like, what power do these committees hold? And like what visibility to that power was communicated in the, the outreach to invite folks to apply. I think that one of the other questions that jumps into my mind is, you know, what is the time requirement that people are going to have to be giving up? Are these funded positions, or are they all volunteer, which as we know, creates a significant barrier, especially engaging the folks who have been most disproportionately impacted, being low, low income folks and low wage workers and people who are in many instances, working multiple jobs to try and, you know, make that ends and meet. So if those are the voices that we need to be listening to in understanding what their needs are and how this money should be spent, we need to transform how we engage community and collect information and work harder to go into those communities instead of inviting them into spaces that had have, and continue to have barriers to even walking in the door, places like city hall. Right. And so what are, do you know what some of the expectations of these committee members are? I am assuming it's volunteer, but would love to hear that it's funded. So could you tell us a little bit more about, about kind of the committees to,

Gina Plata-Nino (18:29):

So I'm gonna tell you what the hopes are. So we have been tasked with consulting and helping them on a volunteer basis. You talk about that on a volunteer basis, cuz we care about the community and we advocate it to make sure these sponsor were available. Our hopes are, and we're working with the city to make sure that ideally it happens that, that it would be stipend. I, I know that we, we have spoken when I say we as our Wester together logistics group, right? With various foundations to ensure that that may happen whether or not the city will accept it. That's a different story because in general prior to 2008, many commissions were stipend, the depression happened. I, and that sort of stopped, but I agree with you because being able to serve and volunteers a matter of privilege.

Gina Plata-Nino (19:15):

So there are some isolated funds that if the city agrees that they could utilize and again, they're private funds. So it's not with the city. We can compensate people, not a lot of money, but enough for their time to serve as to time commitment you ask the funds have to be utilized by 20, 24 much time they will happen, will depend on how much responsibility and how much power the subcommittees will have. Right. I know the city is creating a platform to make sure that all of this information is in and having sat on funding organizations. It's a lot of work that the city will have to do. And then ideally we'll give it to, to the people on subcommittees will then review these grants and ideally be able to say and make recommendations that will be listened to, and that will be affirmed.

Gina Plata-Nino (20:01):

So that's gonna be the, the key part, right? Like how much power. And that will determine how much time, many of the folks who are part of these subcommittees as part of the city have been doing this for a while. They in arts and culture. So they understand the funding mechanisms of how to do it. And the subcommittees ideally are made up of community individuals who are not career advocates most of them. So it'll be a learning curve by my understanding is that there's going to be an orientation process. So that's a very long-winded answers that I can answer specifically how much, because it will also depend on you, the community and who's going to be applying. I really hope that individuals are getting ready and thinking about now that this money is going to come out, I'm going to apply or this organization is going to apply for these funds. So it will depend on how many people are applying and how many people are submitting those applications.

Joshua Croke (20:51):

And that's a great list of things for listeners to advocate for as well. Oftentimes I think people ask like, oh, I wanna get more involved. Like what can I do? And it's like advocate for these things advocate for transparency advocate for people being compensated for their labor. And actually in the cARPAcity of giving out 146 million in our community, right. That is a massive responsibility and people being compensated for that are able to dedicate more time and thoughtfulness to do that, to do that work. I personally would love like a live feed of spending. Like here's what things are are going towards here. Here's how it's taking out of that, you know, that ARPA money so that we can really hold the city accountable and also recognize. And I, I, I don't wanna understate and this isn't in defense of the city where, you know, these, these power structures and there is such complexity in creating budgets and allocating money.

Joshua Croke (21:46):

And I always re reflect back on something Etel Haxiaj said to me on the show once, which was budgets are a moral document, right? They are something that we can go to and understand whether or not something is actually made a priority. And so for listeners, some of the top voted category from the survey and the community in input sessions by and large, the number one by a significant percentage was housing and homelessness. And the questions are like, what are the primary challenges facing our community, right? Housing and homelessness, social and human services, infrastructure, and broadband education and job preparation. Transportation are the top five. And so when we look at housing and homelessness and I know Worcester together also had submitted a list of key topics to be addressed in the community. And that list, and I don't know if it's ranked specifically, but the list includes food insecurity and access housing, early education, youth development of school, time, chronic homelessness, elders, behavioral health, job development, race and equity, parent action, undocumented and Afghan families. And so when we look at the proposed budget from the city housing and homelessness has come up in multiple community lists for many years as something to be really prioritized. And currently there's about 12.5 million allocated in our 146 million budget. So what are some of the things that are important to be considering, like when we are making determinations as to how much money goes to specific issue?

Gina Plata-Nino (23:23):

So I wanna make a clarifying point. I know that the city was stuck at 146 million, but 54 or 50 want it's around that range. And you can ask the city folks when they come in to clarify that are the, I guess, the bucket of money that we're talking about, that the city is going to have input, right? So the other money has been allocated. And as we sort of think about what that process is like, and transparency, I love what you said that, you know, real time, this is how we spend. So I just wanna clarify that, cause I don't want folks to think like, oh, these groups are going to allocate 146. No, some of it has already been allocated. So it's important for us to note, where is it going? It's this bucket of money, which again, I do wanna shut out to say that the city's doing something very innovative.

Gina Plata-Nino (24:04):

Other cities have already spended have never asked for community input. So I really wanna give kudos what kudos is due. In terms of sort of like what you asked the question of housing, is it going to be enough? There's a lot of that particular committee is a little bit different because that is part of the affordable housing trust fund. And that require specific expertise, which are very, very fortunate to have in the city of Worcester. So individuals who do so it is made out of contractors, it's made out of people with lived experience, meaning you're either in subsidized housing or have experience or renters it's made out of folks with economic development experience who can take a very broad approach to see of these things, cuz even someone like me that, that I wouldn't feel comfortable serving on that sort of housing trust fund because it just requires such a specialized niche knowledge. So those folks along with that, and they should have additional funding coming in to address the sort of long term issues. So that's, that's where we are. And ideally they can look at things and say how it's all interconnected to all of the things we've just mentioned. Childcare, food insecurity is all with housing because folks 80 to 90% of your income goes to housing. So if I'm paying less or if I have more resources, then I have more money to take care of all those other safety needs that I have.

Joshua Croke (25:22):

So one of the things that I, I sit on the board of Living in Freedom Together, an organization called LIFT led by Nikki bell who works to support women, exiting sexual exploitation, who often are also dealing with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders. And we have like a housing first advocacy push that we do of like, if we literally give people a key to an apartment and then address other issues, like there is such a magnificent transformation of not only what kind of power and security and safety that housing provides for individuals, but also reduces the barriers of saying, oh, before we put you into housing, you have to do all the, these things, right. You have to address your SUD (substance use disorder) you have to address you know, the other things that in society that are limiting your ability to walk through a door.

Joshua Croke (26:18):

Right. and so we, in an upcoming episode, we're actually gonna be talking to Alex cor Morales from Wilster housing authority specifically about housing and look forward to asking him about what does a housing first model look like? What is getting more affordable housing and really like accessible housing. What does that look like within, you know, with, within our community? And we are almost at time. So if you could tell listeners a single action to take or reflect on anything from this conversation or anything else you'd like to share in our, in our last minute here, what would that be?

Gina Plata-Nino (26:53):

I know there's a lot of things going on. Don't forget about ARPA. This is going to be with us for the next three years, but it will have an impact of 10, even 50 years. Keep on looking at the city website, sign up to their Facebook page. Let's talk about your legislators. Elections are coming up. You said, right, there's a Senate seat open. There might be a, you know, a mayoral seat, open city manager, bring those issues up. City council meetings are open. That means that you can sit down and ask those questions. Let's whole thing. People accountable, holding people accountable is nothing wrong. We're just exercising our American rights for the people by the people.

Joshua Croke (27:28):

Thank you, Gina. And thank you for listening to Public Hearing our podcast and radio show that airs Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM listers only NPR affiliate station, and can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm your host, Joshua Croke. If you are listening and want to support our show share it with your friends too. Public Hearing.co our audio producer is Giuliano D’Orazio, who also made our show music also, thanks to Molly Gammon and Kellee Kosiorek, who also support the production of the show. The work continues Worcester. Thanks for listening.