thanks everyone i’m jennifer bradley i’mthe director of the aspen institutecenter forurban innovation i’m grateful thatyou’ve joined us today to learn moreabout new federal actionsfrom really high profile bills likethe 1.9 trillion american rescue plan toexecutive orders and regulatory changesand how they can be used to support aninclusive recovery in citiesjust a few housekeeping notes this eventis being recordedand it will be shared on our youtubechannel and over various social mediaas most of you are doing we ask that youupdate your display name to be your fullnameand your organization so we understandthe mix of sectors that we have with ustodaywe’re reserving the last section of theevent for audience questionswe’re excited that this can be kind of apeer-to-peer conversationwe ask that you drop your questions inthe chat and i’ll read them out topanelists at the endif you want a specific to answer yourquestion please note thatwe found that this system helps us toaddress more questionsthan any other system that we’ve come upwith over the last yearunfortunately we still won’t get toevery questionthis webinar is a project of the sharedprosperity partnershipand to explain a little bit more aboutthe partnership and introduce ourspeakersi’ll turn it over to our moderatorchantal rushchantel is managing director of thekresge foundation’s american citiesprogramher work advances the foundation’sefforts to catalyze more effectivecommunity and economic developmentpracticethat expands opportunities for peoplewith low incomes in american citieschantelle over to you thank you jennifergood afternoon everyone um i’m here onbehalf of the shared prosperitypartnership the shared prosperitypartnershipis a collaboration of the brookingsmetropolitan policy programthe aspen institute center for urbaninnovationthe urban institute and the kresgefoundationour goal is to leverage the resourcesand technical assistance from theseorganizations and provide thatsupport to local leaders who areadvancing equitable actionand inclusive recovery in cities weknow that the resources coming to citiesand the resources that have come tocitiesso far through the stimulus are criticalleversto make a difference in our communitiesand we think that there are things to belearned from the pasta distribution of resources from thecurrentdollars that are coming out and a way tothink about how to leverage theseresources to make a better futureso we’re going to have both a couple ofpanels a panel discussionand a couple of presentations today thepresentations will frame outa bit more about the executive actionsthat are happening at the moment as wellas federal legislation and how it mightimpact citiesand then we’ll go into a paneldiscussion with local leaders who arethinking about how they’re actuallyusing theseresources today so i’d like to startwith a presentation from solomon greensolomon is a senior fellow at theresearch to action lab and themetropolitan housing and communitiespolicy center at the urban institutehis research focuses on fair andaffordable housinghow land use laws and housing policy canimprove access to opportunityand how data and technology supportinclusive urban developmentover to you solomongreat well good afternoon or goodmorning everyone dependingon where you’re located uh thank you somuch uh for joining usreally excited uh to have thisopportunity to discuss with you therolesthat the federal government has playedand can play to supportum inclusive and equitable recovery uhin the cities you live and work in umas chantal mentioned and jenniferintroducedthere have already been several federalactionsthat we want to kind of start byleveling the playing fieldfor a discussion with some of our localpartners and for the discussion laterand my job is to introduce you all tothe executive actionside of the equation and alan will betalking about legislation so i’m talkinga lot more on policywho’ll be sharing uh the importantmoney and resources so in the first twomonths since takingoffice uh president biden has alreadytaken several actionsuh to support inclusive recovery incitiesum i show them on uh this slidein a time as a timeline um these arejustuh these include actions directly fromthe white house executive orderspresidential memorandum and less formalinteragency requestsand this timeline shows the top ninestarting from inby my judgment uh starting frominauguration dayand extending through the end offebruary uhwe don’t have time to go into all nineof these executive actions and i want touse my time to focus on some big themesand what to expect next so beth willdropinto the chat um oh does she alreadydone that or starting to do thatum the uh full list oflink of executive actions and linkswhere you can find the full text of allof them and you’re welcome to drop intochat any questions you may have aboutany of these and i’ll answer them inchat or we can come back to them duringthe discussionfor now i just want to preview that theyinclude actions related to the followingfour topicsthe first is supporting robust andequitable response to the covid19pandemicand you see on here the january 21st andjanuary 22ndexecutive orders related to ensuring anequitable pandemic response and recoveryand economic relief related to thepandemicanother theme and is advancing racialequitystarting with on day one on inaugurationdayan executive order broadlyadvancing racial equity and providingsupport forum what the order calls underservedcommunitiesuh throughout the federal government wecould talk a little bit more about thatbroad executive order but racial equityas i’ll come back to in a minute reallyruns throughvirtually all of these um executiveactionsthe third big theme is stabilizinghousing and revitalizing neighborhoodsthat have suffered from generations ofdisinvestmentand we see this in the extension of theforeclosure and eviction moratoriumthe presidential memorandum onredressing our nationsand the federal government’s history ofdiscriminatory housingum in even the climate crisis umexecutive order uh includes um theenvironmental justice 40 initiativewhere 40 of investments and clean energytransit infrastructureworkforce and housing are intended to goto disadvantagedcommunities um lastly you’ll see someorders in here repealinguh trump era executive orders thatantagonized cities and actually impededprogress on um advancing equity goalsincluding uh penalizing uh what arecalled sanctuary citiesand labeling and penalizing citiesuh as anarchist cities so one spent alot of time on those but umthat was the uh those those executiveorders from the trump administrationhave been reverseduh next slide pleaseoh great so i do want to just say alittle bit about cross-cutting themesum that run throughout these executiveactions and i thinkas i mentioned earlier racial equity isa really strong one and there is aracial equity executive order whichcoversdata it covers uh you know taking aclose look atpolicies evaluating policiesacross the federal government for racialimpact but eachof these executive orders has a elementof racial equityin it and um and i want to say there areactually three differentparts to the racial equity themes thatrun throughout these executive ordersone is the recognition of structuralracism and systemic racism and the rolethat the federal governmenthas played in creating the disparitiesalong lines of raceacross policy areas across outcomesand and just that recognition and it’sso pronounced in the housing executiveorder on redressingthe harms of past federal policies umjustacknowledging the role that the federalgovernment has played is prettymomentousin these executive orders they’re alsosignaling to agenciesto play a stronger role in advancingracial equity whether that’s throughfair housing and civil rightsenforcementor through taking a close lookat how they spend their money and designtheir programsum and then last is there is also directaction that that some of these racialequity ordersare requiring such as revisitingregulations andpreparing action plans the second bigthemeis leveraging the pandemic response toachieve an inclusive recoverywhile many of these executive ordersfocus on the immediacy of the currentcrisisrecognizing how it doesn’t affect allcommunitiesequally they also talk about leveling uhadopting equitable responses so that wepull ourselves out of this currentpandemic and its economicfallout and uh in a more inclusive andequitable way the build back bettertheme i mentioned reversing trumppolicies that obstructed local progresstowards equity goalsbut i also think not just reversingthose policies but restoring the federallocal partnershipand providing data and resourcesso that local governments and localleaders can actually achieve theirequity goalsand lastly i think all of theseexecutive ordersuh adopt a whole of government approachthey all relate to more than oneagency and have some element of askingagencies uh to collaborate to break downsilos to share datadevelop joint plans some of them alsoactually createinteragency task forces such as theclimate executive orderand the covid19economic recovery executive order nextslideso i just want to say what we can expectlooking ahead and here i’m going toencroach a bit on allen’s top topic andmaybehelp tee up his presentation becausethisis includes not just what we can expectwith executive actionsbut also in terms of big legislativepushes soi do think from the the white housewe’ll continue to see an emphasison the four big themes of the campaignand the transitionum covid19 a rapid effectiveand equitable uh public health responseinclusive economic recovery inrebuilding the middle classadvancing racial equity and everythingthe federal government doesand climate mitigation andadaption um i also think we’re going tosee major investments in housing inparticularthere’s renewed attention in expandingand improving the housing choice voucherprogramuh we’re likely to see major investmentsin transportation and infrastructurewith an emphasis on job creation greenenergy broadband and climateuh major investments in the workforceincluding job training re-skillingand improving workplace standards andfinally relaunching and improvinginteragency neighborhood reinvestmentinitiatives and place-based initiativessome of these we sawand many of you worked on during theobama administrationand i think that the currentadministration is learning from thoseefforts likestrong cities strong communitiessustainable communitiespromised neighborhoods and figuring outnot just how to bring them backbut improve upon them i think that’s itfor now and i’m going to turn it over toalan to take usover to congressthanks solomon hey everybody i’m alanberby fromthe metropolitan policy program at thebrookings institutionand i am going to talk to you a littlebitabout uh primarily the american uhrescue planact which uh was just enacted about justa few days agoum particularly the provisions ofinterest in the actfor local leaders who are going toreceive and allocate many of theseresources and some of you may bedeep in this already into lots ofdetails others of youmight just be learning about this soforgive me if i go either too fast ortoo slow for youand towards the end i’ll say just alittle bit about the next largepackage which solomon was just alludingto the so-called buildback better planthat will likely be introduced bypresident bidenin april in an address to a jointsession of congressso uh what is in the american rescueplan act so the majority ofspending in this uh 1.9 trillion dollarplanis in the form of expanded benefits toindividualssuch as the stimulus checks we’ve hearda lot aboutexpansions short-term expansions to thechild and earnedincome tax credits and then continuedfederal supplementsuh to unemployment insurance benefitsabout three-quarters of a trilliondollars or 40of the bill provides aid both generalaid and specific aid that’s deliveredthrough state localand tribal governments and thecategories of that aid arein the right-hand side of the table hereand these are what i’ll i’ll stepthroughuh in a bit more detail so first themost prominentsort of discretionary part of thepackage is the 350 billion dollars instate and local fiscal aiduh the 220 billion dollars in resourcesto states are allocated mostly based onthestate’s share of unemployed persons inthe fourth quarter of 2020 october todecemberuh there are greatly expanded theresources for cities and counties inthis package relative to the cares actfrom last yearwhich only provided direct grants tolocal governments that had populationsof at least half a millionso this time around uh uh cities thatare cdbgentitlement cities that is typicallywith populations of 50 000 and above aregoing to receive funding using the hudcdbg block grant formulauh which is based on population povertyand housing instabilityuh smaller cities will receive uhresources on a per capitauh basis those that are not cdbg cdbgeligibleand then counties uh so the funding issplit evenly between cities and countiesand counties will receive theirfunds largely on a per capita basis so acouple of differences from the cares actfunding i think are worth noting herefirstthe funds can be used to backfill lostrevenuein contrast to care’s funding the firsttranche of funding will flow relativelyquickly so 50of the funding will be coming to uhstate and local governments within thenext 60 daysuh and then the deadline to spend thefunds is uh quite long until the end of2024.so there’s a first tranche coming in thenext 60 days50 and then the second 50 percent willflowin about one year’s time uh statecity and county capacity to use thesefunds for new spending i want toemphasize it’s going to dependin part on the size of their allocationrelative to the revenue losses that theyhave experienced during the pandemicso um just to pick a couple of exampleslast month the city of fresno heygretchen announced it faced uha 31 million dollar budget deficit thisfiscal yearum the national league of citiesestimates that the american rescue planwill provide uh possibly 88 milliondollars in fiscal reliefto the city this year so that it may bethe case that fresno has the ability toinvest in some new critical areasyou might contrast that with birminghamhello jwwhere they have a 63 million dollarprojected budget deficit this year andthat might eat up the vastmajority of their expected 74 milliondollarsin arp aid in the in the coming daysokay second category schools uhcolleges child care school fundingthere’s more money in this package tolocal school districts than in pastrelief packagesit’s generally intended to help upgradesystems and classrooms to support thesafe return of studentsto help them hire and rehire educatorsand support staffand to make up for learning losses thatmany students have faced duringa pandemic classroom year highereducationalso slated to receive significantsupport uh 40 billion dollarsand that’s largely going to be allocatedas is the case with k-12 in relation totheir pre-pandemic enrollment oflower-income students in the higher edcase those who are on pell grantsand finally definitely worth notingchild care is getting a massive boostover the next few yearsboth through greater subsidies tofamilies from the child care developmentfundas well as direct grants to providersthemselves that will run through states24 billion dollars in new resourcesthere for statesnext category transit and businessestransit agencies are receivinguh 30 billion dollars from the packagethat’sroughly equivalent to what they receivedlast year when their ridershipplummeted and you know operatingrevenues went way way downas the economy reopens as riders returnthis aid is essentially buying theagency some time to restructure theiroperations in response to what in somecases might be a longer term reductionin demand most of the business aid uh29 billion of the total 39 billion is ina new programthat the small business administrationwill administer for restaurantsto cover their payroll and to backfillfor their revenue losses during thepandemicadditionally this part of the packagealso includes a small plusup to the paycheck protection programadvanced loan paymentsfor small businesses and hard hitcommunities and actually a small newgrant program for what they callcommunity navigatornon-profits that help small businessesaccessthese different programs final bigcategorythe profile here housing the majority ofnew housing aidabout 21 of the 39 billion dollars comesthrough the emergency rental assistanceprogram that’s allocated to state citiesand counties on a per capita basisfor them to assist low-income andat-risk rentersthere’s other aid in the package thoughtargeted private particularly at athe homeless through uh the home programfundingand to those at risk of homelessnessthrough emergency housing voucher aidthose each receivefive billion dollars in the package uhinterestinglyuh the home aid will allow communitiesto acquire commercial property likehotels and motels for use as shelteraffordable housing or supportive housingokay so that’s the american rescue planact in the coming month as i noted atthe toppresident biden and congress are likelyto begin workon an ambitious investment plan underthe heading of buildback bettershown here is this sort of uh ambitiousscope that was suggested inthe president’s campaign proposalsolomon alluded to many of thesecategories and his remarksit’s unclear as yet whether it’s goingto proceedat these magnitudes or under all ofthese categoriesor whether it might at least in thefirst instance be more narrowly focusedon infrastructure and competitivenessitemsand then of course what uh what moderatedemocrats might push for in terms of payfors forall of these items too in all likelihoodcongress is going to need to use budgetreconciliation rules once again to passthe plan with a simple majority in thesenateand that’s going to place somestrictures on what the package cancontainbut if a package of any significant sizeis enactedwe could see the confluence of thoseinvestmentshere and those in the second tranche ofthe american rescue plan infy 22 that may enable state and localleadersto pursue more transformativeinvestments so just a fewparting thoughts i could hope willconnect to the panel discussion i thinkit’s important for places to understandtheir local fiscal baseline which isgoing to help dictate the availabilityof more flexibleuh dollars to deploy at the local levelmany of the dollars are going to flowthrough similar channels as in the caresact so being aware of whatworked and what didn’t work and adaptingaccordingly is going to be crucialand then finally i think identifyingways that this year indexedthat the flexible portion of thosedollars can support efforts that havethe potential to enhance racialequity geographic equity by uh eithersupporting intermediaries that createopportunity for black and browncommunitiesand or by supporting uh place-basedefforts that bring togetherinvestments in a range of differentassets uhfor low-income communities i thinkthere’s a there’s definitely opportunityhere and look forward to hearing fromour panelists abouthow they’re seeing it in their placesthankswonderful thank you so much alan um it’sa complicated number ofamount of resources a complicated numberof moving partsum so i’m excited to speakwith our local panelists to learn moreabout how they’re thinking about usingthese resourcesum i’m going to now turn it over to ourpanelists i’m going tomoderate a brief discussion and afterthat we hope to leave plenty of time foryour questionsaround the american rescue actand anything else happening um we havethreeamazing panelists with us today uh thefirst is yanaka chorusshe is the senior director of policy andadvocacy at the chicagocommunity trust she leads the trust’slocal state and federal policystrategieswe’re also joined by paul young thedirectorof the division of housing and communitydevelopment for the city of memphishe coordinates community economicdevelopment projects i should say hisdepartmentand he coordinate community and economicdevelopment projects and initiativesthroughout memphisand there was some exciting news thatcame out today aboutpaul’s new new role coming up socongratulations pauluh and then finally bradford davey isthe director of regional engagement forthe fund for our economic future inclevelandwhere his role is to spread the fund’sgrowth and opportunity framework acrossthe regionso we’ve got a lot to talk about um i’dlike to start i think uhwith what happened with the cares actwe’re not starting with the americanrescue plan fromscratch there were resources thatone-time resources that were distributedumthat have given us some insight into howto best use this kind of stimulus goingforwardi wonder if i might start start withpaul who might share a little bit aboutum what was learned in memphis um fromkara’s actrelief and how that might impact how wethink aboutuh the rescue dollars going forwardyeah i would say that for us the thecares actreally gave us it was a game changer forthe way we think about how we provideservices in the city of memphis we’vehad aneviction issue in our community for manyyearsthe number of evictions in our communityis really really high but it was theurgency of the kovid crisis and theresources that we hadthrough the cares act specifically thosetreasury dollars that came directly tothe citythat allowed us to the city and county ishould say shelby county we havedual government here we used two milliondollars to establish an evictionsettlement fund where we were able topairvolunteer attorneys with people thatwere facing evictions and we were ablewith that two million dollarsto stave off evictions for 1100 peopleand we also were able to identify over500 casesthat should not have been in the courtanyway because they recovered under theeviction moratorium and so for us it wasreally a testament to whywe need to make sure that people go intothese situations represented and soas we’re looking at some of the newerfunds that are coming through we’reworkingin that aspect of having representationfor folks that are facing evictions andyou know we’re also using other dollarsforthings like improving uh transitionalhousing opportunitieswe had a um a church that had thisrehabilitation center that they couldnot get off the ground they were tryingto do like a nursingcenter or something like that and theyjust didn’t quite and this waspre-pandemic they didn’t have theoperating plan to really make it workbut our division had been working withthemwhen they had pandemic hit we pairedthem with a group called room in the endwhich is a national organization thatserves homelessindividuals and families and so now thatfacilitydue to some of the cares funds thatfacility has been transitionedinto a respite care facility so thatthose homeless individuals leaving thehospitalsthat are well enough to be out of thehospital but not well enough to be onthe streetsnow have an opportunity to stay in thatspace soyou know it’s opportunities like thatthat’s guiding us to think out of theboxbox and think much more collaborativelyabout how we serve the people in ourcommunityyes and so it sounds like there’s someinnovations in both like almostapplication processesand triage and program deliveryand i think if i’m not mistaken there’salso been some increased collaborationamong city and county government yeahabsolutely soso one that um and this was not carezach this was the one that uhthe second bill that pay i don’t knowall the names but the one that passed onin decemberuh with those emergency rentalassistance dollarsum i’ve been amazed at what we’ve beenable tocreate and it was only it was on theheels of the cares act we had builtcollaborations with non-profits and withshelby county government whichthankfully we have a really goodrelationship with shelby county becausemy sister my biological sister isthe director of shelby county communityservices which has managed their portionof the funds and so we put our fulluh 28 million collectively 19 for thecityuh nine from the county put thattogetherto create an emergency rental programwhere we have one application where youcan apply onlineand we are funding the variousnon-profit agencies and shelby county isactually doing the staffing andprocessing of checkswe’re really thinking about how we canuse these funds because we’ve never hadthis much money going towardsthis purpose how can we use this as agame changerfor our industry so that we can servepeople betteron the back end and how can this belife-changing for the people that we’reserving we’re able to serve we’re ableto pay up to 12 months of rentalassistance right nowso 12 months is a significant amount ofsupport that can be provided to familiesand sowe’re thinking about that as we arestructuring the programand with the additional dollars that wasjust spoke about coming downwe’re going to use these same structuresto put these dollars out and hopefullyhelpmany more people in our communitythanks paul um it’s clear you have beenquite busyum i i think you know uh both bradfordand jana you’re also thinking aboutum how to use uh these resources uhgoing forward and how to think aboutthemum not just to create uh short-term andmedium-termum improvements but also how to leveragethem over the longer termum i wonder if um uhmaybe we could start with bradford ifyou might share a little bit about howyou’re thinking about that in northeastohio yeahsure um it’s great to be with everyonetoday uhyou know though you mentioned it earlierand it was in paul’s commentsum the the latest stimulus bill combinedwith the two previous stimulusrepresentsfor cleveland the largest positiveexogenous shockwe’ve seen in half a century umin our examination akron receiving 153millioncleveland 150 541 millionyoungstown 89 million these are hugenumbersum and you know like paul said wewe haven’t seen that kind of capital andso umbut what we also know is that a bunch ofmoney flowing into cities withoutactive shaping and preparation is a isreally a recipe for protecting andreinforcinginequality given that um our nation’scurrent structures provide the easiestpath for capitalsto flow to traditional well-establishedmajority-led institutions right and soif we really want to disrupt that cycleright and create equitable outcomes wehave to think about our roleat the local level in two reallydistinct ways rightshaping and preparation rightshaping is the activities thatcommunities take on tounderstand how to distribute caredollars how do we target them how do webecome more equitablethis is exciting work but at the end ofthe day it is by its naturereactionary right so if we think aboutshaping activitiesum there’s really three right there’sthere’s leveragingexisting local resources an example ofthat in clevelandwas the urban league had a successfulrevolving loan programuh with no defaults and so they wanteduh to continue that and when there wascares moneyavailable it provided this opportunityto do a larger fund over a largerfootprintuh the tricky part was some of the edarules thatum said we couldn’t focus on particularcommunities and it was too narrow and souh we worked locally to shape a proposalthatworked within those guidelines uh weweren’t successfuldue to some technicalities but we havebeen asked to resign umthe other in this shaping category isthis idea of platform buildinghow do we build on the established civicinfrastructureparticularly with high-performingintermediaries and sector partnersthat allow us to really accelerate thestrategiesrather than just sort of act on thesenarrow interventionsright and one of the interesting i thinkplatform opportunities that’s emergingis with this 7.7 billion dollarsavailable to hire new healthcare workersrightuh and and if we hire these we thinkabout this only to administer newvaccineswe’re really we’re really missingsomething here right platform buildingencourages usto utilize the expertise of our localworkforce practitioners in the networkto upskill and retrain residents forpermanent jobs rather thana temporary search uh if we considerthis an on-rampto a career in health sciences um youknow we don’t squander this opportunitytobuild that better right and then i wouldjust finally sayum you know we also have thissupplementing right this idea ofadding additions and enhancements tolocal institutions tofill the gap then improve federalsupport and so um this is where we see alot of the small stablesmall business stabilization funds incuyahoga county one was put together bythe county and then uh there was also arapid response fundput together by the cleveland foundationwhich focused particularly onum nonprofits and so you know if wekind of wrap our arms around this ideaof shape shapingum i think we get a little bit closer tothose equitable outcomes that we want toseebut i will end with this right shapingis sort of the sexy stuffit’s the projects we write op-eds aboutit’s theinterventions that politicians put intheir stump speechesfor my foundation colleagues on thephone today uh it’sit’s moving money to mission right uhand all of these things are reallycritical and they’ve by and largestaved off economic collapse importantum but unless wereally think about the long-termplanning that we can do through sectorpartnerships forsense creations uh we’re really missinga key opportunitywonderful this is bringing up all kindsof questions for melike you know given the financial statusof the cities you mentioned you know howmuch of the resources are reallyum you know open to be leveraged versushow much areum going to be needed for um othershortfalls and sort of long-standingum infrastructure um that that’s beenallowed toum todepreciate in some ways over time umjanna you’re thinking a lot about um howhow community can help influence andinformthese dollars curious what you wouldwant to add to the conversation on thispointyeah so we’ve been spending a lot oftime um so as a community foundation forthe chicago region we haveum been really critical um inhelping to build partnerships with ourlocal united way and othersin the immediate covid response and interms of providing relief dollars makingsure thatum you know the early care exact moneywas going towhere those resources were were mostneeded working in partnership with ourcounty and our city and we’ve nowpivotedum to be much more focused towardsthe recovery so we had this covered umchicago covered response fund and nowwe’re shifting towards to sayyou know we know we’re going to be inthis period of needing to focus onrelief for a little bit longer but howdo we preparefor an inclusive and equitable recoveryand doing it so in a way that thatreally centers the communities that havehistorically been left behindin prior recoveries and um we haveyou know the the trust has uh you knowrecentlyuh focused its efforts on closing theracial and ethnic wealth gapand so we ourselves have been doing alot of work we of courseyou know adapted our strategies to beresponsive in this moment but how do wehow what are the structures where are webest positioned as a communityfoundation to helpbring together multi-sector partnersfolks from the public sector in theprivate sectorand and from community those non-profitswho are working deeply in communityand also centering community voice andunder and sort oflaying the foundation in terms of how dowe implement those things that bradfordwas just talking aboutand so we have created a new initiativecalledwe rise together which is veryintentionally thinking about how webring these multi-sector partnerstogether what are the levers we haveum in each of those sectors to kind oflay that foundation leverage existingefforts that exist in communityinvesting in those efforts so thecivic infrastructure that bradford wasjust describingin the infrastructure of our city andour county to be able tobe responsive and do the work um and andabsorb these resources andget out and then thinking about what aresort of the systemic transformations weneed to think about sowe’ve just hired an executive directorsorry for the children running in thebackgroundwe are um we have uhwe’re focusing that effort on threecritical things one is how do weincrease employmenthow do we strengthen small business andhow do wespur neighborhood investment and we knowthere’s a lot thatundergirds all of that and so it’s notmeant to excludesome of the the community stabilizinginvestments sort of you know the rentalassistanceum etc etc but what are thoseopportunities that we have to focus onthose three thingsum but in doing so what are thestructures that we need to createum we have uh to put those communitiesat the center andhaving um deep conversations withnonprofits and that are servingcommunity to hear what are those policypriorities what are those interventionpriorities thatum folks want to see uh invested inum and i can just say we we’ve just readout from some of those um communityinterviewsum and you know some of the toppriorities are the ones that wewe are all talking about and where theresources are comingum housing broadband small businessinvestmentum and that sort of direct cashassistance support thatthe um arpa is is bringingadditional resources to and so we’retrying to createum that mechanism and that uhbroader uh effort that brings peopletogether and brings people to the tablewho haven’t historically been inconversation with each other whetherit’s community the business sector andpublic sectorto really help shape where additionalgrant dollars that we may be able tochannel and invest through a grantmaking initiativebut also what are some of the businesssector approaches that need to changehearing fromemployers but also workers about whatare those supports that they need to beable to fully participate in a recoveryum and what are those business practicesthat they can commit to thatcenter racial equity and um it isn’tjust often about dollars but it’s likehow do we change what we’re doingand so how does the business sector cometo the table for thatand then the public sector playing acritical role with that and sayingyou know we have these federal resourcesthat are coming yes we’re dealing withbudget deficits in chicago and illinoisit’s it’s a long-standing challengebut how do we take these resources andbring themum to bear and in partnership andleveraging these otherthese other efforts so we’re we’re youknow we’re trying to create those tablesworking groups that can bring all ofthese different umresources perspectives ideas togetherand actuallyset us on a path um as additionalresources come down the pikethat we have the place to to channel umto to shape and channel those uhopportunitiesthank you so you know a few questionsarise for me from this um you’ve gotthis kind of largespigot of capital coming from thefederal governmentand then you’ve got um you know jannayou’re talkingyou know about these tables at thecommunity level that couldum influence or inform how those dollarsflow and there’s just so muchspace in between those two things um soi’m curious if we could talk a littlebit more about like the sequencing ofthisso jana i’d love to hear a little bitmore about likewhat’s the timing and the sequencing forthese tables and how do theyhow are they going to be able to informthe dollars that are coming nowand then and then paul and bradford i’mwondering a little bit more aboutum you know who really has tocollaborate um to get these dollars outthe door in a way that’s equitablethere’s so many different actors and umyou know without the specificity it’s abit confusing about you knowwhat really needs to happen at the locallevel ummaybe we could we could start with umwith janasure um so in terms of timeline i thinkuh we’ve been in conversation with thefolks at sc2 for a little while aboutthis effortum and and how do we shape it and frameit and and get it underway and so we’rejust at the point so we’ve done these umcommunity interviews and focus groupswe have hired an executive director wehope for these tables to start conveningin the nextthis in the next month so that we canreally drill down what are theopportunities to leverage what are someof thethe resources that need to be deployedto supportthe public sector to receive and investyou know we’ve been having conversationswith the city that some of thestructures that they established for thehousingassistance are actually may not workwith thewith the new the way that the new rentalhousing provisions have been put inplace and soum they’re actually it’s actually morerestrictivebut still how do we meet those needs sowith the early dollars that the city wasable to deploy on rental assistance theywere able to give thatagnostic of immigration status with thisnewwithin these new resources they may notbe able to do that so that partnershipthat they hadentered into with the familyindependence initiative to get thosedollarsto to folks um for rental um supportthey’re not going to be able to toleverage that and so how do we supportthat so startingcreating those spaces for thoseconversations to start to happenum are you know we’re just laying thatumputting that in place so it’s you knowwe know we need to move quickly but wealso want to be deliberate and planfulabout how do we do thatum but you know we’re at the point wherewe’re ready to kind of jump inwe’ve been in the strategy developmentso those three areaswe’ve really been in that space for along time doing a market map of who’sdoing whatum are in these various areas and reallyunderstanding who needs to be at thosetablesand where those opportunities are tocontinue to further shape thosethose interventions and and then policyum longer termthank you that’s really helpful um pauland bradford anythingyou know that the audience should reallyknow when it comes to sort of who reallyneeds to collaborate differently to tomake these dollarsthe most impactful over the longer termyeah i’ll start i think that the naturalconnection points for support in thecommunities have to be a partof this this collaboration and what imean by that we have an agency calledmetropolitan interfaith associationthat’s mifa as we refer to it locallyand they are the hub of support forfamilies that are experiencing crisiswhether you you need you have foodinsecurityor you need housing that is the placethat you goand so we had to have them as a part ofthe collaboration because that’s alreadyan intro forour local united way is an entry pointand so what we tried to do was fold inthose naturalentry points and try to leverageeveryone’sspecialty and so mifa specializes inum in homelessness and supporting thosefamiliesbut we have a group like united housingwhich does housing counseling and sowe’ve made housing counseling a priorityuh for those that are receivingemergency rental assistance and sothat’s theirthat’s the baileywick in which they playand so the other thing that i would sayis really important and it’s notnecessarily about collaboration but it’sit’s maintaining enough flexibility asyou’re operating this program so you canyou can adjust over time my sister likesto say we’re building this plane whilewe’re flying itum and the other thing that the otherquote that i took from our bosseswe can’t let great be the enemy of goodso with these programs we have to getsomething that’s good enough to get themoney out on the streets to help peoplebut just know that we can adjust overtime and make sure that we are creatinga programthat even after and i saw this questionin the in the chat or this note in thechat abouthow um endowments can help even afterthe this influx of capital is goneyou have a structure where it doesn’tmatter the source of the funds if youhave dollars you have a structure thatcan operate and that’s whereendowments and foundations and otheruh other sources of funds can come intoplayawesome we’re in just a second we’regoing to turn it over to q a becausethere’s so many great questions in thechat i’ve been trying to read them whilei’m moderating but it’s difficultum but so bradford anything you’d addbefore we go to q ai would only i would only say that umtwo things since we opened the door toquotesum you know most of our challengescome from the fact that we’re notproximate to problems right and soat a high level we should be doingeverything we can to make sure thatorganizations there on the front line ofthis areare closer to the to the work and twois that we have to be activeparticipants in our own deliverance hereum everyone needs to be involved andi think that is nowhere that has beenclearer than inin the ppp work you know hypotheticallyum everyone was supposed to be able toreceive pppright in the first round uh we saw thatthat didn’t happen so the second roundcdfis were enlisted to get closer to theproblemin the third round i might suggest thatwe need to think abouthow we can get technical assistanceprovidersto get involved in the recoverybecause one of the one of the examplesis um is structured bankruptcyright as as companies are thinking aboutthe challenges on their booksuh just like people are under bankedpeople are under lawyeredright and uh we really need to make surethat there’s technical assistanceat the local level at the ground levelto make sure that businesses come out ofthisuh prepared to continue to do businessuh in either in the same form or adifferent oneperfect yeah we we saw that with thefirst round of ppp for sureand um in detroit and other cities thatkresge works in we’re trying to figureout that puzzle and it’sum can always be improved um so withthatum jennifer would you like to guide usthrough the q ayeah absolutely um thank you so muchchantelleand panelists i think that that was agreatunderstanding of the opportunity and theneedto create different systems andcollaborations and ways of behavingin order to get truly different resultsone of the questions and if you look inthe chat there’s been a lot of talkabout how much flexibility how thefederal government mightstructure things so one of the questionsfrom dominic robinsonof center state ceo in syracuse he saysi’m curious if the administration isconsideringhow to how infrastructure investmentsand economic investments will coincidewith their racial and geographic equityagendawill projects in distressed communitiesthat benefitlow and middle income residents beprioritized for exampleuh solomon do you have any insights onthatright you mentioned that there’s a lotof interagency whole of governmentapproachare are is the federal government goingto spend kind of through the lens ofej40or through the lens of the executiveorderuh on equityyeah uh that’s a great it’s a greatquestion umand i think that um we’re i don’t knowwhether i’ve i have not actually heardwhether any of theum uh the current stimulus is going tobeej40 is going to apply that actuallyhadn’t hadn’t occurred to me yet i thinkthe executive orderis a little bit more has a longerhorizon it saysto instruct agencies to start looking atimplementingthe environmental justice for theinitiativeover a longer time horizon um sorry ihave a garbage truck goingby so if that if that blocks the sound iapologizeum i think most of that’s going tohappen through guidance but as i alsouh you know put you know because it tothe extent it wasn’t in the legislationand you could look umyou know piece by piece at thelegislation so i know in the housingcontextthere was an explicit emphasis umon uh using uh the housing dollarsin uh hardest hit communities umthere’s an emergency voucher uh programwhich uh you know there’s expectationsthatit’s being used uh for very low incomefamilies lowerincome than would normally qualify forthe voucher program or at greatereviction risks soyou could look at the legislation andsee where the legislationincludes kind of deeper targeting moremore equitable parameters a lot ofthat’s going to happen through guidancebut i would also emphasize what i put inchat umin response to simeon and now todominic’s question as well there was atypo therebut i think it’s true in response toboth questions that what you can expectisthe federal government to actually leavea lot of discretion up to states andlocalitiesum and so the work really happens uhis going to happen at the state andlocal level to make sure that thatall of the funds across programs aredistributed equitablyi don’t know if alan uh has otherthoughts or others on the panelor on the call in response that it’s agreat questionnot for me i thought that was well saidsolomon um so alani will i will direct this to you andthen i’ll turn it to the panelum bethia and uh annikain the in the chat have been talkingabout an opportunityto leverage resources bethia talkedaboutthe need to get different municipalitiesto collaborate right across municipallinesanika talked about this being anopportunityto leverage private resources theirnumerous efforts from public private andmicrofinanceorganizations separately alanright brookings metro program you thinkabout this a lothow how are these either cross-border orcross-jurisdictional collaborations arethereare there pockets of money that couldfoster them are there good examples umand then i’ll alsoturn to um the panelists to answer thisquestion because i think it’s reallyimportantbecause not everybody has one siblingworking in city government and onesibling working in county governmentwhere this stuff can just happen likememphis and shelby county rightum yes but to cut to the chase likethat’s probably theit strikes me as some of the lowerhanging fruit in terms ofsort of cross-jurisdictionalcollaboration can happenyou know at the city at the city andcounty margin because they’re bothyou know significant recipients of thelocal aid dollarsum you know of course cities andcounties have differentfunctions and are you know back fillingtheir budget holesfor for different of those functions umbut yeah there’s there’s i think it wasjust thei think the motivation for the aid wasfill your budget holes okay where dobudget holes emerge okay they theyemerge at the jurisdictional level sounlike you know if the if the emphasiswereyou know actually stimulus you mighthave seena stronger emphasis on sort of biggerregional plays and it may be that in thecoming build back better legislationwe see more of that and we should seemore of that and i would you knowi think i and my brookings colleaguesand solomon and his urban colleagueswill be looking for chances toto emphasize that but i would yeah iwould i would love to hear more fromi think memphis shelby county andcleveland cuyahoga county tooabout you know how they have found uhyou know either this time around or sortof looking back to caresthe opportunities for city countycollaborationso paul do you want do you wanna takethat and then i’ll check in withbradfordyeah i mean to the point about nothaving a sister and brother i know thatthat’s not the case everywherebut i do think that there is a veryclearinterest in making sure that we get themost out of these funds and soi would encourage municipalities andcounties to really think about how youcan leverage these to createsome support systems that will live longbeyondthis injection of capital one thing thati guess and this is not answering thequestion but i’m just gonna say itone thing that i think we can do um orwe should think about as municipalitieshow can these dollarsgo towards improving some of our mostlingering issues and for memphis one ofour lingering issuesis the quality of our housing stocks sowe’re we’re putting a lot of dollarsinto rental support and paying rentbut we’re paying rent on on prettycrappy unitsand so what we have done as a part ofera for instance iswe have worked in a randomizedinspection so if the landlord acceptsthe fundsthen we can randomly inspect theproperty toensure that it’s up to code andyou know with that we’re also going tobe taking some of the cdbg dollars andtrying to createsome pots of funds where if you’re alandlord and you don’t actually have thedollars to make those improvementsyou can tap into those dollars so solayering impact and i think if you canget multiple jurisdictions to think likethat and be on the same pageyou can really have a tremendous impacton yourrespective communities greatum bradford turning over to you and alsoif you if you want toincorporate um some of the things that’sjust emerging in the chat uh againfrom uh anika and simeon about makingsure that the dollarsactually get into the hands of thepeople whoare uh most in need as opposed to thiskind of siphoning offof of dollars through institutionsthrough again the people who usually getand distribute and benefit from thismoney that is a big topicum i wouldn’t ask if i didn’t think youwere more than capable of knocking itout of the parkyeah well try uh you know at first pointi think theopportunity for collaboration is reallyaround some of its competitive moneyum so you know there’s for instancethere’sthree point six allen simon let me knowuh 3.6 billion um from theusda to build up food supply chainsand so in a place like cleveland wherethere’s this ability toreally leverage some of our um foodinnovationshow do we build up a cluster that allowsus to to grow in that way and as itrelates touh being neighborhood centric you knowuh and making sure that it gets in thehands ofthe people that need it um you know thefundhas previously supported um some workaround the central kitchen which is afood incubator that’s specificallytargeting plant-based proteins inblack and brown neighborhoods and tryingtoreally seed and scaleminority food entrepreneurs and so howdo we connectum these really real um smallbusinesses to the competitive grantsthat are probably only going to be ableum to be realized through those biggersort of intermediary city countycollaborationsand then i’ll then i’ll just say thatthe the other competitive placewhere we can think about this is thebillion dollars that are available for10 cities to establishtech innovation hubs and so you know ifwe can get really alignedacross cities and counties uh to designthose places and compete for dollarsum you know we can we can scale newinnovations in neighborhoods that havedrastically needed them great um reallyquick over to you yanaand then chantal to wrap upyeah i just had a i wanted to just add aquiz quick thought on this becauseyou know chicago is the biggest city incook countyand there’s a lot of overlap umyou know we have several municipalitiesin our region as the brookings metrofolks know wellum it adds a layer of complexity but iwill say that you knowas part of this initiative we have boththe city and the counties sitting atat the table on the steering of entitiesandand what we’re starting to hear a lot ofas these new dollars come inare requests for supporting the city orcounty infrastructure to do this work soin in the earlier stages we partneredwith the county ontheir small business grant program wherethey actually granted the money to thetrust and we got it out because we couldget it out quicklyto directly to small businesses but alsoto those intermediariesproviding technical assistance sometimesthat’s appropriate other times it’sappropriate and as we’vewe continue to hear is who’s gonna whowho’s at the city with you know fiscalthe fiscal strain that the city and thecounty have been underthey’re not always staffed to be able todo the work ofdesigning the program to get the moneyout and so we’re getting a lot ofrequests to supportstaff in addition toyou know the partnerships to to get themoney out soyou know as we think about um how do wedo that for both our city and our countyum serving you know a largemillions of folks in both of thosejurisdictions umwe really want to make sure we can helpsupport thatgreat um i wish we could address theincredibly rich conversation that’sdeveloping in the chat but unfortunatelywe can’tuh perhaps we will have another time tocome togetherat chantal can you give us some words toclose outuh well i just thank everyone forjoining us i think our panelistsalso think alan and solomonum it sounds like there is a ton of workto do andin a few months we’ll know even moreabout how to do this work more equitablyand inclusivelyso perhaps some of the questions in thechatcould be addressed in a future webinarlike this sothank you all so much and i’m wishingeveryone on the calla lot of success and good luck um forthe work that they’ll be doing over thenext few months
On March 16, the Shared Prosperity Partnership, in partnership with the Aspen Institute Center for Urban Innovation, hosted “A Preview of Federal Actions to Support Inclusive Recovery in Cities” to explore federal funding, policy, and regulatory changes that affect cities, how to use these tools for equity, what lessons can be learned from the CARES Act, and how we align federal resources to local inclusion efforts.
Speakers
Alan Berube, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings Institution
Bradford Davy, Director of Regional Engagement, Fund for Our Economic Future
Solomon Greene, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute
Ianna Kachoris, Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy, The Chicago Community Trust
Paul Young, Director, Division of Housing and Community Development, City of Memphis
Moderated by Chantel Rush, Managing Director, American Cities, Kresge Foundation
Emceed by Jennifer Bradley, Director, Aspen Institute Center for Urban Innovation
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