Allentown orgs set to share $1.2M from Community Reinvestment Fund

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — More than a dozen local organizations likely soon will get a small share of Allentown's coronavirus pandemic-relief funding.

Allentown Council's Community and Economic Development Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend dividing the city’s $1.2 million Community Reinvestment Fund among 16 nonprofits.

North Penn Legal is in line to get the biggest grant of any nonprofit at $325,000. That money would support an eviction-prevention program that was “highly successful in the past,” according to Vicky Kistler, Allentown’s director of community and economic development.

The resolution also calls for the city to keep $320,000 — more than a quarter of the total fund — to support its Whole Home Repair program.

The Black Heritage Association of the Lehigh Valley is due to get $25,000 to help recruit homeowners for the program.

The Crime Victims Council stands to get the only other six-figure grant.

That organization plans to use its $100,000 in Community Reinvestment funding to hire a Spanish-speaking counselor who can work with the families of crime victims, Kistler told council members.

And the Allentown YMCA — now known as the River Crossing YMCA — would get more than $87,000 to put toward three projects, including its warming shelter.

'A plethora of applications'

Allentown City Council in May approved a measure that gave Mayor Matt Tuerk’s administration $1.2 million of the $57 million the city got from the American Rescue Plan Act to supplement revenues lost during the coronavirus pandemic.

The administration then put an equal amount into the Community Reinvestment Fund for grants to nonprofits.

Those budgetary transfers satisfied strict federal deadlines and restrictions on how municipalities can spend ARPA funding.

Allentown can be much more flexible with how it distributes non-ARPA money, and more nonprofits would qualify after federal restrictions are removed, city officials said in the spring.

ARPA funds can only be used for specific reasons that can be tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. That funding also comes with many restrictions and a looming end-of-year deadline to allocate all funds.

City officials got 48 applications totaling $3.4 million for Community Reinvestment grants — almost three times what the city put into the fund.

A selection committee composed of city staff and council members reviewed all but two of those before selecting 17 projects for funding.

Allentown’s Sixth Street Shelter and the Fine Feather Foundation each stand to get a $50,000 grant, with $42,000 going to Community Bike Works and $30,000 for Operation Address the Homeless.

'Working toward common goals'

Five projects are earmarked to get $25,000 grants.

Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach said the selection committee received a “plethora of applications” with grants going to “a good mix of some larger organizations and some of the smaller ones that maybe traditionally don’t get funding.”

“I’m happy with the results,” Gerlach said, though she noted she would’ve preferred using the $1.2 million to address “some systemic issues” in the city.

Employees in the city’s grants department now will work to “customize” contracts that codify applicants’ proposals, Kistler said.

Abigail Goldfarb, executive director of the Lehigh Conference of Churches, thanked council members for supporting the measure that would give $20,000 to her organization’s street outreach program.

The Lehigh Conference of Churches’ partnership with the city “has been very successful,” she said. “I feel like an equal partner. … It feels like we’re working toward common goals.”

“Ditto,” Black Heritage Association Chief Executive Officer Kevin Easterling said from the back of the room.