SAN ANTONIO – Over the past three years, a pot of federal COVID relief money has helped the City of San Antonio not only keep its budget balanced but also fund a variety of community programs.
But that money is steadily dwindling, and both the city and the groups it has funded are preparing to go without it.
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In all, the city has received $1.1 billion from various federal pandemic relief efforts with each pot of money carrying its own restrictions.
However, the $326.9 million of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) the city received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was the single biggest chunk. With half delivered in May 2021 and the second half in June 2022, it also gave the city the most flexibility in how to spread the money around.
As a result, the city has used ARPA funding to shore up its own budget, pay off residents’ overdue utility bills, help small businesses, help pay for improvements at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and fund a variety of programs for seniors, youth and mental health. The city also gave grants to individual artists.
But the money came with a ticking clock. Every dollar must be allocated by the end of this year and spent by the end of 2026.
The vast majority of the money has already been earmarked for specific causes, and most of it has been spent as well.
By the end of July, city officials say $231 million was already out the door. The city has plans to spend at least another $73 million in fiscal year 2025, most of it in the form of grants to outside groups.
The city tried to focus the funding in “one-time” ways, City Manager Erik Walsh said, adding that the “handful” of things the city initially funded with ARPA have mostly been rolled into the city’s regular operating budget.
“I mean, we’ve been planning for it,” Walsh said with a shrug when asked if the city faced a hard landing once the money dries up.
“What’s probably more a reality,” Walsh continued, is managing the growing deficit between city revenues and expenses, which has already caused the city to try to cut or shift tens of millions of dollars.
“I think we’ve planned appropriately for ARPA over the last couple of years,” Walsh said. “And we’ll continue to plan for the next year-and-a-half as we get through it.”
The city’s low-barrier homeless shelter, run by San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries out of a leased hotel on Cesar Chavez Boulevard, is funded with $15.9 million of ARPA money.
But Walsh said the city doesn’t have plans to shift the expense into the city’s regular budget once the lease expires in late 2025.
Other groups are readying themselves for the end as well.
With the help of ARPA funding, Family Service was able to expand a program for mental health services from two school districts to six.
The group’s ARPA funding is set to close out in Feb. 2025. CEO Mary Garr said her group always knew the money wasn’t available in the long term, and they will try to find ways to replace it.
“We’re going to be seeking other sources of grants to carry on, or we will have to contract, you know, reduce the services that we currently provide,” Garr said, noting that the funding loss would mean fewer counselors in certain schools.
Christian Assistance Ministries President and CEO Dawn White-Fosdick said her group used ARPA money to bolster an existing program for paying people’s utility bills. The ARPA dollars have meant they can help more people and handle bigger balances, she said.
Similar to Family Service, though, White-Fosdick said her group would try to find other ways to fund their utility assistance program once ARPA is over.
“We do recognize that, at the same time the past couple of years, things have just started to cost more,” White-Fosdick said. “And so, we’re ramping up in general to try to provide more. But if we can’t, we can’t. We just have to be able to do what we can do.”
The San Antonio City Council still needs to determine how to spend another $5.8 million in interest and unspent ARPA funding. City staff have suggested using $3.1 million to keep operating senior centers at extended hours for the next two years.
City council members have suggested using the remaining $2.7 million on everything from supporting arts and culture, expanding the range for senior center pickups and starting planning for a new medical center on the South Side.
Council members will vote on a final spending plan for the 2025 fiscal year on Sep. 19.
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