Город Нью-Браунфелс направил 11 млн долларов из плана восстановления на строительство доступного жилья и развитие инфраструктуры

Exactly one year after the World Health Organization declared the global COVID-19 pandemic that led to world-wide shutdowns, former President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) on March 11, 2021. The federal stimulus funds were distributed to local communities to assist them in economic and public health recovery. New Braunfels, though, had placed itself in the unique position to use the $11 million it received to address long-term community needs, according to the August issue of Better NB. New Braunfels has a strong, diverse economy, Assistant City Manager Jared Werner said, which absorbed some of the impact of the pandemic. “The city certainly experienced economic disruption, but its primary revenue sources were not impacted as severely as those of many other communities,” Werner said. “New Braunfels benefits from a diverse local economy and sales tax base that is not dependent on a single industry or employer. Combined with conservative budgeting and financial management, this helped the city maintain financial stability during a period of uncertainty.” ARPA funds were distributed with “broad flexibility,” and with guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to “direct resources toward populations that were historically disadvantaged and disproportionately affected by COVID-19,” the city leveraged funds to provide resources for struggling community members and services that filled a gap, the Better NB article stated. The city worked with local assistance agencies, led by the Comal County Cares program, to find where the largest needs were. Results found that more rental, utility and food assistance, as well as mental health resources, would benefit the community the most. “Many of those most affected by the pandemic were already living in the city's most economically distressed census tracts, and families with children were particularly affected,” the Better NB article stated. After asking local nonprofits to submit capital improvement and infrastructure projects, the city poured its ARPA funds into four categories — housing and shelter, supporting children and families, improving healthcare and enhanced mobility. The investments helped launch programs like Ride the Rio, a nurse training and education center, the Mill Street Youth Center and shelter and transitional housing through NB Housing Partners, Connections Individual and Family Services, the Crisis Center of Comal County and the San Antonio Food Bank. One notable project that ARPA funds helped make possible is the San Antonio Food Bank’s Apple Seeds Apartments — which will provide affordable housing options for families struggling to make ends meet. The McKenna Foundation was instrumental in purchasing the land that now holds the New Braunfels Food Bank, President and CEO of the San Antonio and New Braunfels Food Banks Eric Cooper said. When purchasing the five-acre tract, the foundation set aside about half of the land for future affordable housing. NB Housing Partners had been working for many years to find an organization to take on the housing project, and ultimately, they asked the food bank if they were interested. “The food bank board really took stock and decided that if they could help with this project, that we would,” Cooper said. “We met with lots of organizations to understand what the need was, and the need was for multi-family apartments that would be more affordable than the market.” NB Housing Partners and the food bank found that some residents who worked in New Braunfels couldn’t afford to live there, and businesses began reaching out because they were losing their workforce. “They are moving to northern Bexar County and are commuting up everyday, and then they get tired of the traffic and just decide, ‘Well I’m just going to get a job in San Antonio, forget driving up to New Braunfels,’” Cooper said. The Apple Seeds Apartments has a construction budget of about $12 million, much of which has been paid for by the McKenna Foundation, individual philanthropists and community development block grant funds from the city. The ARPA funds made a big impact on moving the project forward, Cooper said, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. “It wouldn’t have happened without the ARPA funds, and we can’t wait to have the Apple Seeds open to take on some residents,” Cooper said. The apartments will have 52 units, and the food bank hopes to attract families with children under the age of 18. For that reason, there will only be two-and three-bedroom units. “It’s really designed to meet the needs of a family,” Cooper said. “And we’d like the family to be thinking of it as a scholarship and an opportunity to live in a kind of class-A quality housing at an affordable price.” The apartments will be rented at prices lower than market value, which will be stabilized over the period that a family lives there. The food bank hopes that residents will stay for four years, and over that period of time they will participate in a program that teaches them money management and life skills. “We’re working on a strategy where the tenant will get some of the equity, or some of their rent, rebated back to them upon completing the curriculum and graduating from the program, which will be a part of living at the apartments,” he said. “ … We hope by staying in meaningful employment and working through education and opportunities, that households will, over a four-year period, be able to increase their wage and position to be able to then move out of the Apple Seeds into the market.” Compared to other public housing models, where individuals or families may stay indefinitely, the Apple Seeds program is intended to stabilize families and equip them to be on their own after a few years. “It’s trying to serve a household that is low income, but stable enough in employment to be able to move through the curriculum for the duration of time,” Cooper said. “It’s not serving families in an emergency setting or coming out of a shelter … People that live in affordable housing work, and people that live in workforce housing work. The challenge, honestly, is the differential between the pay or wages in the market and the price of housing.” The Apple Seeds Apartments is just one initiative that ARPA funds helped support, but it is a prime example of the long-lasting, generational impact the city’s investments will have. A full funding breakdown showed $3 million allocated to city public transportation and pedestrian mobility initiatives, $2.3 million to NB Housing Partners, $1.5 million to the New Braunfels Youth Collaborative, $1 million each to the Crisis Center, San Antonio Food Bank and Connections, $500,000 to the McKenna Foundation for utility bill assistance, $190,000 to Friends of CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Foundation, $136,000 to the Children’s Advocacy Center of Comal County and $5,000 to Habitat for Humanity. Additionally, about $336,000 was paid to Baker Tilly, which is “a professional services and consulting firm with experience in governmental finance, federal grants and compliance,” Werner said. “[Baker Tilly] assisted with developing agreements and compliance requirements for the nonprofit organizations receiving ARPA funding and helped ensure the City's overall reporting to the U.S. Treasury was timely and accurate,” Werner said. The city’s diverse economy kept it afloat through the pandemic, and the ability to use ARPA funds for non-essential community initiatives will have a lasting impact on those who need it most. “The significance of ARPA for New Braunfels was not simply the amount of funding received, but the city's ability to leverage those funds for investments intended to create lasting, and in some cases generational, benefits for the community,” Werner said.