City’s child care program gets boost

Fayetteville puts $1.5 million more in relief money toward helping with costs

FAYETTEVILLE — The City Council decided Tuesday to put an additional $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan money into a child care assistance program, bringing the total allocated for the program to $2 million.

The council voted 8- 0. The original proposal from Mayor Lioneld Jordan was to add $1 million to the program, but council member Holly Hertzberg proposed adding $500,000 to his request. Hertzberg’s fellow council members unanimously supported the amendment.

The city started accepting applications in December for residents to receive a year’s worth of financial assistance for child care. Anyone who lives, works or goes to school in the city and meets federal low- to moderate-income guidelines is eligible. There is no cap on the amount of assistance provided to a family. Payments are made in the form of vouchers to licensed child care providers.

Households earning up to 80% of the median family income in the city as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are eligible. The city provides a chart with the income breakdowns on its website at https:// bit.ly/ fayARPAchild care. For instance, a family of four with an annual income of up to $66,950 would qualify.

The city has sent out 298 applications to residents since the program started, said Yolanda Fields, the city’s community resources director. So far 70 are in the process of being approved, totaling an estimated cost of $840,000, covering care for 90 children. Another 17 applications are pending further review for approval, with an estimated cost of $204,000, covering care for an additional 20 children, she said.

“It could make a huge difference in somebody’s life,” Fields said.

The council started the program with $500,000 out of its $17.9 million share of American Rescue Plan money. Jordan and Chief Financial Officer Paul Becker advised council members a few weeks ago that the program would need more money. The council subsequently held a workshop last week to discuss the best use of the remaining portion of the city’s federal pandemic relief money.

Council member Sarah Moore suggested setting some kind of deadline for how long the city will continue to accept applications. The process now has the city accepting applications until the money runs out. Moore said her concern was if the city continues to take applications and the money runs out, the applicants would have an expectation of receiving money that may not be there.

“I want to give as many people an opportunity to participate, knowing the need is really great and the barriers are quite high,” Moore said. “I’m just hoping we can think about setting a deadline, knowing the need is going to outstrip what we have.”

Fields said city staff will assist people with filling out applications and getting proper documents together, whether they need help over the phone, online, in person, at their home or beyond daytime work hours. She recommended waiting until the end of the month to see where the program is at to assess a potential deadline.

City Clerk Kara Paxton addressed the council during the public comment period, emphasizing the high cost of child care and the struggles many families face balancing work and home life.

Additionally, council member Teresa Turk said she plans to introduce a measure at the Feb. 21 meeting to use $1 million in American Rescue Plan money to allow nonprofit organizations to recoup financial losses incurred during the pandemic. The time period for reported losses would be March 2020 to March 2021. The council previously approved more than $ 582,000 in financial assistance to 11 nonprofit groups for losses incurred from March 2021 to March 2022.

If the council approves Turk’s proposal, that would leave about $ 1.7 million in unallocated American Rescue Plan money.