Committee holds ARPA reappropriation bill after line‑by‑line departmental review

The St. Louis City Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee on Tuesday held board bill 161 — a broad reappropriation of unspent American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and related funds — after department directors and nonprofit partners outlined balances, contract limits and outreach efforts.

Caitlin Smith, policy adviser to the mayor, told the committee the mayor's office coordinated a line‑by‑line review so aldermen could confirm that “every organization is on the same page” about contracts, compliance and the specific dollars proposed for reallocation. Smith said departments had been doing repeated reviews with compliance teams and that staff and directors were standing by to answer detailed questions.

Adam Pearson, director of the Department of Human Services, led a detailed account of DHS reappropriations. He described a $100,220 unused contract with United Way of Greater Saint Louis for case management; a $377,882.84 mortgage‑assistance balance related to ParkCentral Development Company that the department said could not be converted to rental assistance because of contract language and federal timing rules; small recoveries from an Oracle reconciliation ($29.70) and recaptured, unspent debit/gift cards ($14,573.72); and a $690,436.71 remainder from a $1.2 million direct care worker recruitment and retention fund because program uptake was lower than projected. "We engaged in a very rigorous marketing campaign," Pearson said, but the department concluded it could not spend the remaining funds under the original contracts.

Aldermen pressed DHS and the mayor's office on whether mortgage assistance could be shifted to rental assistance given local need. Pearson and Smith cited Department of the Treasury guidance and contract expiration timelines: they said ARPA funds could only be moved to uses that matched the original contract language and that contracts had to be executed by the Treasury deadline. "If we can directly show invoices that the water division had to spend money, that falls under Treasury guidelines," Smith explained, describing the limits that once prevented some shifts.

Matt Mook, director of the Community Development Administration, walked the committee through numerous CDA awards the department proposes to repurpose after finding several programs unable to spend to contract. He said CDA reviewed 115 programs, referred 11 for termination or repurposing, and is moving forward on repurposing amounts tied to projects including early childhood support, housing‑production and neighborhood beautification. Mook said some organizations returned advances and others agreed to amend scopes to try to spend funds down.

Office of Violence Prevention Commissioner Marvin Tier presented OVP’s review of roughly 33 ARPA contracts and recommended repurposing portions of awards where monthly spend rates and staffing constraints make full spend‑down unlikely. Tier’s list included projected remainders for vendors such as Urban League, Covenant House, Safe Streets / Safe Neighborhoods and Washington University; he said OVP left conservative buffers so an organization would not be stripped of necessary operating funds.

Nonprofit leaders urged caution. Abdul Abdul, executive director of Park Central Development, said mortgage assistance funds had been pulled in 2024 and asked the committee to account for that history when judging program performance. Representatives from Urban League and Northside Youth and Senior Service asked the committee to delay action and pursue spend‑down plans and appeals; Northside’s director said they had not been offered an appeal process prior to receiving notice. "We would like the opportunity to come up with a spending plan that we can each agree with," said the Northside representative during public comment.

Chair Clark Hubbard and committee staff agreed to hold the committee substitute so departments could reconcile invoices and follow up with organizations. The clerk recorded a request to hold board bill 161 and to return the bill to committee next week for further review. No final appropriations were adopted at the hearing.

The committee also reviewed smaller remainders in Health, Board of Public Service, Building, Streets and Treasurer line items and asked departments to provide follow‑up documentation on certain contracts and contracts' remaining terms. The committee said it will continue outreach to providers and will accept written documentation from departments and nonprofits before resuming action on the bill.