‘Don’t spend a cent.’ Lexington should hoard COVID funds to fight next round of COVID.
A few weeks ago, Mayor Linda Gorton had a rare, fun announcement, the kind politicians dream of, in which she asked Lexingtonians to tell the city how to best spend $113 million in federal COVID relief funds.
Thursday was the start of a process “that could lead to once in a lifetime opportunities for our community,” Gorton said. Think big, she said, of innovative ways for American Rescue Plan Act funding to help people most hurt by the pandemic and will aid the city in the future.
Well, here’s one idea: Don’t do a thing, don’t spend a cent. Save the money, hoard it, and wait to see what this next round of COVID has planned for us.
Just this week, two things have happened that make it clear Lexington needs to save every penny. One, the Delta variant appears to be swamping states with low vaccination rates like Kentucky. We don’t know exactly how bad it will get, but it’s clear our economy could take another hit.
Two, the federal government just declared another 60-day moratorium on evictions due to new COVID cases. Lexington and cities across the nation are currently still paying out federal funds to landlords for the past year, but it’s been an extremely slow process. Housing advocates are happy to avoid a greater crisis of homelessness, but landlords are predictably worried about another moratorium.
“We’ve gotten to the point that landlords are really suffering financially too,” said Brenda Wells, director of the Greater Lexington Apartment Association. “They’ve got to be paid.”
The group has joined forces with the Catholic Action Center and the city’s Housing Stabilization Program to help clients apply for back rent, but it’s been very slow process. “We’ve got to get everyone caught up,” Wells said.
The Housing Stabilization Program started with $29 million in federal COVID aid, but was delayed in adopting software and hiring people to deal with the onslaught of applications from tenants who got behind on rent when COVID shut down the economy and their landlords. It’s catching up on applications, but there’s no doubt that another eviction moratorium will result in many more applications.
The Catholic Action Center Director is a shelter for homeless people, but it’s also an advocacy group to prevent homelessness in the first place. That’s why founder and director Ginny Ramsey and her staff have been working with landlords and the Housing Stabilization Fund to prevent people from losing their housing. Ramsey said that in the two days between the first moratorium expiring on July 30 and a second one starting on Aug. 3, they’ve been hearing about illegal evictions outside of the court process that end up with people’s belongings thrown on the street. A new wave of COVID could only make it worse.
“The real problem here is the pandemic,” Ramsey said. “As much as we wish the pandemic were over, it’s not. This is a health crisis that could turn into a housing crisis.”
Ramsey would like to see the city hold onto all the federal aid it can get, in case the stabilization money runs out before COVID cases do. Another advocate of holding tight is Urban County Council member Richard Moloney. He’d like to see a task force decide how that money can be used to best weather current and future COVID crises, rather than spending it on a list of projects that council members and other already have their eyes on.
“This should not be where the council decided on what projects they want, we should decide on goals and how we’re going to come out of the pandemic,” that continues to hurt Lexington’s most vulnerable citizens, he said.
Sure, the mayor should continue with the public surveys for ideas, and see what people have come up with. According to Gorton’s office, ARPA funds have to be obligated (such as under contract) by Dec, 31, 2024, and fully spent by Dec. 31, 2026.
So there’s time to wait and see how bad this next round of the pandemic gets and where the money is most desperately needed. And if that’s keeping people from becoming homeless, then that’s where we should spent it.
