New Haven officials: ARPA funding exhaustion cuts year‑round youth jobs to 40; summer employment topped 700

At a Sept. 3 meeting of the City of New Haven Youth Services Committee, Director Williams of the Youth and Recreation Department told committee members the department has exhausted one-time American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations that had expanded summer and year‑round youth jobs, and said the city's year‑round employment program will drop to 40 slots this fiscal year.

Why it matters: The reduction shrinks the department's capacity to employ and provide year‑round services to young people and forces staff to scale back expensive signature events previously funded in part with ARPA dollars.

Director Williams, director of the Youth and Recreation Department, told the committee that ARPA money that had supported expanded hiring is gone. "The $2,000,000 that was given to us from ARPA from the city'who paid it has been expended," she said, and she added that a separate local allocation from Representative Walker also has been spent. "Post ARPA is…