American Rescue Plan Act Funds for Detroit

In 2021, as a component of the American Rescue Plan Act, Congress enacted the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal
Recovery Funds program. Federal dollars were distributed to local governments on the basis of their population
size and their economic conditions during or shortly before the pandemic. Cities had considerable discretion about spending
these monies but they were targeted to fiscal problems exacerbated by the pandemic. All funds have to be spent by the end of 2026.

The federal reserve bank in Chicago just released a report about how Chicago and Detroit have or have not spent these funds. Detroit was allocated $827 million. According to this report, as of the end of 2022 the city of Detroit has budgeted only 60% of the $827 million. Only 31% of the $827 million has become
an obligatory allocation and only 6% of the $827 million had been spent.

I don’t know much about these matters. It appears that Detroit officials are using some of these funds to demolish abandoned commercial buildings. However, Congress, I think, has the power to claw back unspent funds. I am surprised that so little money has been allocated and spent. Does anyone know more about this?
Thank you.

Thanks for the reminder RENF... I found out that there is a pandemic related federal fund here in Michigan called MIHAF... Michigan Homeowners Assistance Fund... for lower to mid income folks who have issues of being behind in their property taxes, water bills, and utilities.

This fund had almost $243 million allocated in Michigan, and if the unused portion of this fund is not used up, it will be forfeited back to the federal government.

If you or anyone you know is having problems in the areas I mentioned above, have them check out this website...

https://www.michigan.gov/mshda/homeo...ner-assistance

If you are eligible they will pay up to $25K of your residential back taxes, water bills or utilities.

https://detroitmi.gov/departments/of...re-being-spent

Currently, $776 million of the $823 million has been programmed, meaning that it's been budgeted.

The other numbers basically show the progression of the spending. Spent means that if it's a grant program, that the grant is out of money and the program is over. For construction it means that the project is completely done and open and the contractor has been fully paid.

Personally I'm not worried about it. They still have a year and a half to obligate [[have contracts and agreements for the spending, but not actually spent the money yet), and then two more years after that to spend everything.