CDFI Friendly America
To engage with CDFI Friendly America LLC to bring financing from one or more community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to the City. The scope of work to be provided includes creating a CDFI Friendly strategy to significantly increase CDFI financing in Fort Worth, with priority on financing for communities of color and others that have long been denied full access to essential financing on reasonable and appropriate terms, establishing an independent permanent CDFI Friendly entity, research on community development efforts, local market conditions and trends and/or opportunities, identifying credit gaps that CDFI financing might fill, and preparing a business plan that clarifies and illuminates key findings, assumptions, resource needs, market priorities and projected outcomes.
Center for Transforming Lives
The Center for Transforming Lives (CTL) intends to complete an adaptive reuse of a 1950’s era structure, located at 2851 S. Riverside Drive. This facility is located within the 76119-zip code which has one of the highest poverty rates in Tarrant County. The proposed redevelopment will restore both the building and the surrounding land to create a hub for services, such as early childhood education and economic opportunity. The City of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, have identified a need to partner on the establishment of this centralized campus to improve access to childcare, healthcare and workforce development.
Child Care Associates
Renovation of the Gwendolyn C. Gragg Child Development Center includes the addition of three classrooms bringing the total to eight classrooms and expanded services for infants and toddlers.
Child Care Associates
Building a new Early Learning Center at the future Stop Six Social Services Hub to expand access to infant, toddler and three-year old services in Stop Six. The ARPA investment will draw $9.2M in quality learning services from Child Care Associates at no charge to low-income families in Stop Six over ten (10) years
Evans & Rosedale Redevelopment
Property is being purchased to resell at below market value in order to facilitate the redevelopment of a portion of the Historic Southside Neighborhood to include low to moderate-income housing as part of the Evans & Rosedale Urban Village Master Plan.
Habitat for Humanity
The purchase of the fourteen detached platted lots south of John Peter Smith Hospital will include the replatting and development of land to build 26 or more affordable townhomes, which will be sold to low-to moderate-income households in Fort Worth.
Neighborhood WiFi
The Neighborhood WiFi project was initially begun with CARES funding to provide free internet access to approximately 10,000 homes in five underserved neighborhoods in the City; Rosemont, Ash Crescent, Stop Six, Northside and Como, in an effort to support remote education, employment search, remote work, telemedicine and access to community services. Several factors led to delays in the project’s completion. While the wireless service has been established in each area, ARPA funding will cover necessary redesign of deployed infrastructure, the completed implementation of the project, community outreach and education and operational costs necessary for the management of the deployed technology until September 30, 2025.
Permanent Supportive Housing
The City of Fort Worth is part of the local Continuum of Care (CoC), and one of the priorities of the CoC is to address the current level of chronic homelessness. Tarrant County Homeless Coalition (TCHC) evaluated the homelessness situation in the CoC area and identified strategies, resources, and the estimated number of new physical units of permanent supportive housing (PSH) needed. TCHC has determined one of the greatest needs is for physical units designated for the chronically homeless. The allocation of general ARPA funds will allow the City to produce an additional 40 PSH units.
UNTHSC Techstars
Establishment of the Techstars Future of Human Movement Accelerator program to address the disparities caused by the pandemic in physical therapy services by developing businesses that deliver new therapies and technologies to better the health outcomes for all residents of Tarrant County. In order to implement these efforts, Tarrant County and the City of Fort Worth are each committing funding in support of a three-year program for the Accelerator Services program.
Visit Fort Worth
Visit Fort Worth will put ARPA funds to work rebuilding our visitor economy, which supports jobs and local business. Visit Fort Worth powers economic development through tourism – creating jobs, raising the City of Fort Worth’s visibility and contributing to local quality of life. As a 501(c)(6) contracted with the City of Fort Worth, Visit Fort Worth represents the hospitality industry as they share the Fort Worth story.
In 2020, Visit Fort Worth responded to the pandemic by laying off 20% of its staff, reducing spending and shuttering visitor centers. During the pandemic 12 employees were laid off. Over the next three years ARPA funds will replace about half of the $10.44 million Visit Fort Worth lost during the tourism downturn. Specifically, $6 million over three years or 57% of that total loss of projected revenue, enabling Visit Fort Worth to rehire 6 of the 12 staff members.
On September 27, 2022 City Council approved additional funding to Visit Fort Worth for the purpose of securing future special events for the City.
Tarrant Area Food Bank
Tarrant Area Food Bank (TAFB) requested an allocation from the City of Fort Worth totaling $3.2 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act Fiscal Recovery Fund Program for the capital acquisition of the property and building located at 205 North Vacek Street, Fort Worth, TX 76107. The purchase of the 205 N Vacek property will double the capacity of the Food Bank and allow TAFB to respond to the needs of the ever-growing community. The purchase would provide the Food Bank with an additional 80,000 square foot of facility space which will allow TAFB to accomplish multiple goals within one location. The top priorities for this facility are: 1) expand capacity for Tarrant Area Food Bank’s primary mission of food acquisition and distribution to address population growth in its service area, 2) establish an Agricultural Hub to support the local community with fresh produce and 3) increase access to vulnerable communities through new distribution models.
United Way One Second Collaborative
In coordination with the United Way of Tarrant County, the City of Fort Worth Police Department proposed to establish the One Second Collaborative. The One Second Collaborative is a joint effort to strategically and comprehensively disrupt gun violence among young adults and teenagers in targeted zones across our community. The collective mental health of the community has been significantly strained due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC reports that suicide attempts and suicides have soared among children between the ages of 12 to 17. Shootings involving children and teenagers have been on the rise in recent years. Experts say idleness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic shares the blame with easy access to guns and disputes that too often end with gunfire. Together, FWPD, the United Way of Tarrant County, and additional stakeholders are coming together to address the escalating issue of youth gun violence.
Deeply Affordable Housing Infrastructure & Drainage
The development, called Tobias Place, will be a mix of one- to three-bedroom units with 90% reserved for people who earn 60% below the area’s median income. Use of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding would ensure a strong and equitable recovery from the pandemic by providing the infrastructure needed to create 288 new low income housing units in an underserved community in Fort Worth.
Police COVID Health Expenditure
Like many communities across the country, the City of Fort Worth (City) employee health plan has been negatively impacted by the increase in COVID-19 related claims due to the pandemic. The City’s health plan is self-funded which means the City, via third-party administrator, pays the claims as they occur. In 2021, the City paid over $1.4 million in COVID claims for police employees.
Workers’ Compensation Claim Costs
The City of Fort Worth Workers' Compensation program is self-insured. Traditionally the program on average receives 1,800 claims per year, recent COVID activity has increased claim activity to over 2,100 claims. In addition to the volume of claims, we have experienced various COVID claims that have required long term/extensive medical treatment impacting the ongoing cost for these claims. With the unprecedented nature of COVID claims the program is facing the challenge of limited budgeted resources.
Cobb and Highland Hills Parks
The American Rescue Plan Act allows for expenditures for neighborhood features promoting health and safety as part of building strong healthy communities. Funding for Cobb and Highland Hills Parks will be used for repair and improvements to entrance roads and parking lots to allow better access for residents to the many amenities encouraging healthy lifestyles provided at the parks, including trails, a variety of courts and fields, playground equipment and multi-use areas. Both parks are located within qualified census tracts in Council District 8.
Streetlight and Pedestrian Safety Improvements
The City of Fort Worth has identified a need for implementation of roadway safety improvements on West Long Avenue from Azle Avenue to Angle Avenue, and LED upgrades to streetlights in approximately 30 neighborhoods to improve pedestrian safety and support the goal of eliminating fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility.
The street lighting project scope includes conversion of 7,243 streetlights to LED, upgrades to wiring and technical components as necessary, and replacement of structurally compromised wood poles. The 30 neighborhoods were identified based on an evaluation of lighting in all 350 neighborhoods in the City. Evaluation criteria included equity, equipment type, age, roadway type, and nearby pedestrian generators.
The scope of traffic and pedestrian safety improvements on West Long Avenue from Azle Avenue to Angle Avenue includes a full signal upgrade at Azle Avenue, strategic median closures, new left-turn lanes and positive left-turn offsets, installation of a traffic signal at NW 35th Street, if warranted, installation of a rectangular rapid flashing beacon at 33rd Street, and filling sidewalk gaps. These improvements are critically important because this 0.91-mile-long corridor is a Top 10 Vision Zero Pedestrian High Injury Network location located within a Majority Minority Area in the city. In addition, Dolores Huerta Elementary School is served by this roadway.