American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
The coronavirus pandemic caused personal and fiscal hardships for many Houstonians. Fortunately, the City of Houston avoided a massive budget shortfall thanks to more than $600 million in State & Local Fiscal Recovery Funds from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
In August of 2021, the City of Houston published its first American Rescue Plan Act Recovery Report detailing how the City planned to allocate resources in response to the pandemic. The programs listed in this report show continued efforts to address Houstonians’ concerns with these ARPA resources.
But for the dollars being made available by Congress and the President, there would have been major budgetary cuts and layoffs. The ARPA funds are helping protect the salaries of first responders, including police, EMS, health, and solid waste workers who continued to work throughout the pandemic.
The vast majority of our State & Local Fiscal Relief Funds (SLFRF) dollars have been invested in maintaining our city services through revenue replacement programs. There has also been a targeted effort to fund two initiatives that have improved the lives of Houstonians: public safety and a clean environment.
- On February 2, 2022, we launched the “One Safe Houston” program, a comprehensive community response to combatting crime. The key performance indicators in this report show the programs in our One Safe Houston initiative are effective and are making a difference in improving public safety throughout Houston. We have invested $53 million in SLFRF dollars to holistically address crime through One Safe Houston program.
- On March 29, 2023, we launched the “One Clean Houston” initiative to combat illegal dumping throughout the city, allocating nearly $18M in additional dollars over two years. The initiative focuses on three key areas: rapid cleanup, better enforcement, and prevention and education investments. The plan works with homeowners, community members, non-profits, industry, and other governmental organizations to comprehensively address illegal dumping.
This site will offer a summary of the ARPA reports, including the Executive Summary and Project Inventory.
In addition to the SLFRF, this site offers a summary of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) designed to keep families up on their rent in and in their homes. Houston was was called “one of the nation's strongest local ERAP programs” by Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo. This program was Houston & Harris County’s portion of the $21.5 billion federal program authorized by ARPA.
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