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ACCESS tells Story County ARPA funding supported shelters, hotel stays and crisis responders
Summary
ACCESS reported it has spent most of its Story County ARPA allocation building shelter capacity, funding hotel stays and paying on-call responders and crisis-line staff, and provided several financial totals and service metrics to the Board of Supervisors.
Lisa Diggs, co-executive director and finance manager at ACCESS, told the Story County Board of Supervisors on June 3 that the agency has used American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to expand shelter capacity, pay staff and provide direct financial assistance to victims of crime.
Diggs said, “These funds have enabled us to provide direct financial assistance to victims of crime,” and reported that, as of June 2, 2025, ACCESS had spent $426,762 of an allocated $552,900 and expects to submit claims through May by June 15, 2025.
The nut graf: the ARPA dollars have paid for both operational staff and direct aid that ACCESS officials said made it possible to put victims into safe locations quickly — including hotel stays when the nonprofit’s shelter capacity was full.
Diggs gave specifics. ACCESS has provided $161,976 in direct financial assistance overall; within Story County specifically, $98,638 has been spent in the last fiscal year. The agency also recorded $24,526 in hotel-stay expenses for Story County victims and said it provided 3,444 shelter bed nights in Story County (4,280 bed nights across ACCESS’s five-county service area). Diggs said ACCESS sheltered 95 different clients in the past fiscal year, 79 of whom were Story County residents, and reduced “turnaways” from 265 the prior year to 208.
Board members asked how the agency staffs crisis responses. “You said your responders who go out are volunteers. Correct?” a supervisor asked. Diggs corrected that the responders are paid, part-time staff who are on-call from about 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. and are paid a higher rate when dispatched. She said the crisis line is staffed by paid staff, not volunteers, and that volunteers now must meet the same certification and criminal-background requirements as paid staff.
Diggs said ACCESS plans to continue using grant dollars in the coming fiscal year to support on-call responder positions but that sustaining those positions beyond ARPA funding will depend on other funding sources and on the actual monthly utilization of on-call responders.
She described operational details for hotel use (average room cost “about $90”) and said ACCESS partners with at least two Story County hotels to keep client stays confidential.
The presentation generated no board action; the report concluded with questions and a staff acknowledgment that continued funding beyond the ARPA allocation is not yet secured.
