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INFORMATIONAL MEMO <br />Page 3 <br />Phase 2 Funding Priorities <br />1. Assistance to households, businesses and respond to impacts due to COVID-19 <br />a. Assistance to households <br />i. Increasing human service funding by increasing cap per household <br />ii. Assistance for utility payments in arrears <br />b. Assistance to businesses <br />i. Increasing grants and support for small businesses <br />ii. Create Economic Development Plan with a specific lens of mitigating <br />impacts due to COVID-19 <br />c. Impacts due to COVID-19 <br />i. Improve community access to Council meetings by updating Chambers <br />2. Provision of Government Services impacted by reduction in revenues <br />a. Capital Investments delayed or deferred <br />i. Traffic Calming Program <br />ii. Other Capital needs <br />b. Other Service and Staffing needs <br />3. Investments in infrastructure <br />a. Broadband infrastructure investment — reduce the digital divide with a focus on <br />students and low-income residents <br />4. One -Time Investments for long-term financial health — (City will need more information <br />to clarify eligibility and some might fit under other priorities) <br />a. Teen and Senior Center Investment — planning, design, and/or land purchase <br />b. Digitizing Permit Records to better respond to public records requests <br />c. Facility planning to address significant unmet needs in City facilities <br />Detailed Discussion <br />1. Assistance to households, businesses and respond to impacts due to COVID-19 <br />a. Assistance to households <br />i. Increasing human service funding by increasing cap per household <br />1. Additional funding for rental and utility assistance is a potential <br />candidate for ARPA funding. Tukwila Human Services staff continue <br />to see a high need for rental and utility assistance. While staff is <br />working to leverage other funding sources where applicable, staff <br />believes that if additional funding were to be made available for rental <br />and utility assistance, such funding should go to raise the $2,400 cap <br />currently placed on families to assist them in wiping out extensive utility <br />and rent arrearages. Human Services staff have worked with many <br />families with rent arrearages in the thousands of dollars and is now <br />experiencing many calls from families who have already hit the lifetime <br />cap, which was raised from $700 to $2,400 to address the pandemic. <br />ii. Assistance for utility payments in arrears <br />1. Staff has reached out to utility providers in Tukwila to better understand <br />the utility arrearages in the community. Current estimates is between $1 <br />and $2 million for all utility providers in Tukwila. Human Services and <br />Communications staff are pushing out information on Seattle City Light <br />and PSE's discount programs, as well as regularly referring qualified <br />families to the LI HEAP program in order to reduce utility arrearages. The <br />City of Seattle recently voted to continue its utility no late fees/no shut <br />3 <br />