Mayor Tim Kelly is encouraging businesses and residents of communities “disproportionately affected” by the pandemic to submit funding requests for a share of Chattanooga’s $38.6 million American Rescue Plan.
“A strong local economy is one where opportunity is inclusive of all,” he explained.
Applications for funding requests will close on Jan. 6, 2022.
Using the online portal at Recovery.Chattanooga.gov, users can apply for funding or complete a brief survey on how they feel recovery dollars should be invested in Chattanooga. Survey results will be used to steer the mayor’s initial direction of the process and serve as a reference for city staff.
The survey will be available until Nov. 23.
The portal can also be used to join a 12-member Equitable Recovery Commission, established in partnership with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and the Urban League, and tasked with developing a set of clear priorities to inform and guide the administration’s investment plan.
The deadline for interested residents to apply for service on the commission is Nov. 10; successful applicants will be asked to serve through the first half of 2022.
“The American Rescue Plan serves as an opportunity to catalyze lasting positive change in our city, for generations to come, with a focus on communities disproportionately affected by an extraordinary public-health emergency,” Mayor Kelly said.
The World Health Organization’s report “Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health” notes that, “poor and unequal living conditions are the consequences of deeper structural conditions that together fashion the way societies are organized–poor social policies and programs, unfair economic arrangements, and bad politics.This toxic combination of factors as they play out during this time of crisis, and as early news on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic pointed out, is disproportionately affecting African American communities in the United States.”
Funding from the American Rescue Plan is subject to federal spending rules that control and limit expenditures to certain categories such as COVID-19 mitigation efforts, economic impacts, infrastructure investments, crime prevention and mental health issues.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also called the COVID-19 Stimulus Package or American Rescue Plan, is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021. It aims to speed up the country’s recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing recession.
