Pittsburgh council sets community meetings on federal covid relief cash

A series of community meetings will be held in August to get more input about how Pittsburgh should spend the $335 million allotted to the city in the federal American Rescue Plan.

Last week, city council approved a four-year plan to allocate the money, amid criticism by some residents and community groups who asked for the chance to provide more input.

RELATED: Pittsburgh Council approves plan to spend $335M in federal covid relief money

Instead, council approved the plan, crafted by outgoing Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration and a task force that included council President Theresa Kail-Smith and council members Ricky Burgess and R. Daniel Lavelle.

Burgess and Lavelle spearheaded the creation of a task force to make sure the city allocated its money using a “lens of equity” so minority communities were helped.

Councilman Ricky Burgess has called its allocations “transformational investment” in the city’s Black communities.

As approved, the allocations restore positions that were left open as the city enacted a hiring freeze during the pandemic and provides 3% raises to nonunion employees whose salaries were frozen in 2020.

The plan also includes $7 million for the city Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Avenues of Hope program, which aims to revitalize business corridors in predominantly Black neighborhoods, along with $2 million for development efforts in Homewood, $1 million for the Jasmine Nyree Campus in Sheraden that helps people with special needs and $1 million for the Gladstone School affordable housing development in Hazelwood.

But the plan doesn’t invest in programs to help combat hunger and accessibility to food, something several residents and community groups lobbied for.

It was released June 28 and council held two public hearings before it was approved.

That wasn’t enough, some residents said.

Kail-Smith and other council members have said the plan can be revised at any point and they promised there will be more chances for input.

Although council is on its summer recess, these in-person community meetings about the plan are scheduled in August:

• 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 2, at Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, 10 S. 19th St.

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4 at West End Health Active Learning Center, 80 Wabash St.

• 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9 at Pittsburgh Project, 2801 N. Charles St.

• 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11, at Kingsley Center, 6435 Frankstown Ave.

“We want to hear from people,” Kail-Smith said.