Spokane asks city residents to weigh in on coronavirus aid spending

With no dearth of people and organizations in need, the city of Spokane is asking residents to weigh in on how it should spend its cut of federal coronavirus aid.

The city launched an online survey Tuesday that will help city officials determine how they should spend $3 million or more in funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Mayor Nadine Woodward and the City Council have broadly defined several categories the city will pour funding into – housing and rental assistance, child care, homeless services, small businesses and community response programs tackling COVID-19.

The survey is nine questions and asks city residents to prioritize those categories.

“We really want to know from the community what their priorities are,” Woodward said.

Woodward and City Council President Breean Beggs said their goal will be to fill gaps left by other sources of aid, including the CARES Act funds distributed by Spokane County.

The city received $6.6 million from the CARES Act, but exactly how much it has to funnel into the community remains uncertain. It could use a portion of the CARES Act money as a match to access additional funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, bringing the total to about $10 million.

The city estimates that about $3.5 million of the CARES Act funding will be spent on its internal coronavirus response this year, with costs including staff time and additional cleaning requirements. But the city could look to access other sources of funding to help cover its expenses, Woodward said.

“If that’s the case, we’ll definitely have more to be able to help,” Woodward said.

Time is limited, as the city must have the money spent and reported to the state Department of Commerce by Oct. 31 in order to be reimbursed.

“I’m excited (that) we’re finally sitting down to actually get this done and get this money out there into the community and rapidly circulating,” Beggs said.

He said the City Council could consider community feedback as early as its meeting on Monday.

The city’s portion of the CARES Act funding did not come directly from the federal government, but through Gov. Jay Inslee and the Commerce Department. Spokane County directly received about $91 million because its population is greater than 500,000 people.

The city survey is available at my.spokanecity.org/covid19/cares-act-funding/