CH allocates balance of ARPA funds

CH lead-abatement specialist Zach Ravanelli at work.

Following a year when the Cleveland Heights Housing Preservation Office tripled its lead-abatement project spending to reach $600,000 in federal Housing Urban Development (HUD) funds to remove lead from windows and doors, the city is poised to invest $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in 2025 to continue remediating lead and repairing the city’s rental and owner-occupied homes.

The city plans to spend another $2.5 million of ARPA funds in home-repair programs to help Cleveland Heights residents who qualify (those who earn less than 120% of area median income), including an exterior home-repair program to replace driveways, trees, sidewalks, and detached garages. Encouraging "healthy homes" through repair is also a driving force in the city’s decision to invest $1 million from the total $38.86 million in ARPA funds it received from the Biden administration in a new home-repair program run by Home Repair Resource Center, the Cleveland Heights-based nonprofit.

Cleveland Heights is also investing in the arts, including major renovations at Cain Park, and is providing small-business relief. 

The main thrust of ARPA is to speed U.S. recovery from the economic and health effects of COVID-19 and the recession. ARPA provided state and local governments with a one-time infusion of resources to respond to the pandemic and aid recovery by building a more equitable economy.

The Seren administration and CH City Council embarked on a process starting in late 2022 with a series of community engagement sessions to determine where ARPA funds could serve the greatest need in stimulating an equitable recovery in Cleveland Heights.

“We’re excited to be able to announce all ARPA funds are encumbered,” Mayor Seren said. “Once the city administration took an active role in getting the ball over the line, we made tremendous progress. It was a team effort with various departments, including Finance, Law, and Community Development.”

The city directed the first tranche of ARPA funds in 2022 to address these immediate needs:

• An $18 million program of sewer line replacements,
• $10 million directed to replace tax revenues the city lost during COVID, and
• $460,000 to pay first responders whose service was invaluable during the pandemic.
  
  

With the $18 million, Cleveland Heights will bid out sewer and water main replacement projects, including on Yellowstone and East Fairfax roads.

“The benefit is that we didn’t have to implement a (utilities) rate increase,” Cleveland Heights Public Works Director Collette Clinkscale said. “We are able to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows due to the funding we received.”

In selecting projects for the previously unannounced $10.4 million portion of ARPA funds, the city focused on repairing infrastructure, supporting economic growth, and community programs [such as] home repair and small-business relief.

The city is directing $300,000 to develop a small-business relief program for existing businesses, with a special focus on the Taylor and Noble corridors. UBiz, an affiliate of The Urban League, has been contracted to administer the small-business grants. The city also approved $600,000 to fund a city-operated small-business support program through its Economic Development Department.

“We’re looking forward to getting these programs up and running in 2025,” the mayor said.