February 19, 2021
Last May, the City of Columbus
received $157 million in federal
CARES Act dollars to support the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and
to meet the most critical needs of our community.
Our first focus was on emergency
shelter and food assistance, investing more than $18 million to establish COVID shelters and $1 million to assure homebound residents didn’t go hungry. We
invested another $36 million to
support human services agencies struggling with unprecedented demand, helping
residents avoid eviction, feed their families and pay their utility bills.
Many families struggled to balance
work and remote learning. To help assure all children had the chance to succeed,
the City purchased 20,000 Chromebooks for Columbus City Schools and partnered
with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission to provide internet hot spots. We
also invested $1.6 million to
support learning extension centers to provide a safe, healthy environment for
students to get help with school.
Many parents rely on daycare to keep their
jobs, but most child care centers were shuttered during the shutdown. The City
used CARES Act dollars to provide assistance to 450 child care providers in
Franklin County, which allowed many residents to stay employed.
We also know young people
were desperate for positive activities and interactions, so we invested CARES
dollars to ensure Columbus Recreation and Parks could provide summer camps, and
invested $2 million with outside
agencies and community organizations through micro intervention grants to help
stem youth violence.
Small businesses also needed help to
survive the economic crisis, and thus we provided more than 950 small
businesses with grants up to $10,000
to help them weather these unpredictable times. And because we knew that
minority and women-owned businesses were less likely to qualify for the federal
payroll protection program (PPP), we prioritized our grant and loan programs on
minority businesses first. In addition to funding the critical frontline public
health response to COVID, the City was able to maintain core city services without
laying off a single employee. We established operations at the state
fairgrounds, first to provide community testing and then to administer
vaccines. To date, Columbus Public Health (CPH) has tested nearly 23,000
people, and in just a short period of time, administered more than 25,000
vaccinations.
Still more CARES dollars were invested
to staff contact tracing efforts and to operate a hotline to provide
potentially life-saving information to residents with COVID-related questions.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, CPH has answered more than 73,000 calls.
What’s more, the City has distributed more than 500,000 masks throughout the community
because we know that facial coverings are still our best defense against the
spread of the virus.
Initial federal support helped our
community manage the pandemic, and to position Columbus for recovery -
including funding for anchor institutions and community assets vital to retain
and attract residents, employers and new ideas that will be required to
navigate challenges that lie ahead. We know as the pandemic continues, we will
need more funding to address the short- and long-term repercussions. We are
working closely with the Biden administration and our congressional delegation
to ensure we receive the resources necessary to continue to manage the
pandemic, keep our residents healthy and safe and fuel a recovery focused on
equity and closing the racial, social and economic disparities COVID exposed.
In the meantime, we must remain
vigilant in our fight against COVID-19: wear a mask, stay home as much as
possible and limit your risk. Wash your hands often. And when it is your time
to get the vaccine, do not delay.
We will turn the
corner this year, and with continued hard work, commitment and dedication from
city staff and residents, we will lead our community back to health.