Skagit County details roughly $25 million in ARPA spending on public health, homelessness, behavioral health and broadband

Deputy Administrator Jennifer Johnson told the Skagit County Board of Commissioners on July 8 that the county allocated about $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to address pandemic-related needs including public health capacity, emergency management, behavioral health, homelessness and broadband expansion.

The sums and projects Johnson described aim to convert one‑time federal aid into longer‑term services and infrastructure: investments included expanded public‑health staffing and clinics, more emergency‑management equipment and an incident‑command van, several homelessness shelter and motel‑voucher programs, grants and start‑up funding for childcare, behavioral‑health staffing and programs for children, and broadband mapping and fiber build matching funds.

Johnson said the Treasury program delivered the county “approximately $25,000,000” in two payments and that the final Treasury rule for State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds allowed local governments broad flexibility to spend on pandemic response and on certain services affected by the pandemic. She told commissioners the county used about $10 million as the permitted revenue‑replacement option and that about $4.3 million of ARPA funds remained unspent at the end of 2024 and were earmarked for future commissioner priorities.

The largest single categories Johnson highlighted were social‑safety‑net and…