MADISON, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) - Dane County’s highest leader says the community needs more coronavirus relief money from the federal government.
Since getting $95 million in CARES Act funding, Dane County has put that money to work.
“One of the first things we did was partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank to provide about a million dollars a month to the food bank to get to local food pantries,” says Dane County executive Joe Parisi. “Because so many people were laid off, the need for food increased so much. Not only among people who maybe had needed help before, but lots of people who never needed help with food in the past.”
The Second Harvest program prioritized getting its produce from local farmers, to help prop them up during the pandemic.
Dane County also created a grant program for small businesses, so they could get some support when they were shut down.
A $10 million chunk of the federal money went to the Tenant Resource Center, which funded grants to keep people from being evicted.
“Through that program, we were able to keep about 13,000 people in their homes,” Parisi says. “These are moms and dads and kids who otherwise would be getting evicted.”
But now, most of that $10 million is gone. It’s been distributed to the people who needed it.
“That not only keeps the families in their housing, but it also allows the landlords to be able to pay their mortgage,” Parisi says. “A lot of the landlords in this town are small business people themselves who have a mortgage on the property that they own. So that's another example of that domino effect. If someone can't pay the rent, not only could they find themselves out on the street, but the landlord can find themselves not able to make that mortgage payment. And then it ripples from there.”
While the county has saved some money to keep funding food banks, Parisi says Dane County residents will be hurting without another injection of aid.
“People will suffer, there will be human suffering. People will lose their homes lose their apartments, small businesses will likely go under,” Parisi says. “I just hate to think of what will happen to folks, especially folks who are vulnerable right now.”
That’s why Parisi has written a letter to Baldwin and Johnson asking Congress to pass another aid bill. So far, Republicans and Democrats have essentially been at a stalemate.
“We're really hoping that the federal government can come together and authorize another CARES Act and provide the crucial funding that local governments and communities need,” Parisi says.
In that letter, he outlined the programs Dane County has funded through federal money. “We've been good stewards of these dollars, and it's helped a lot of people.”
He’s asking federal lawmakers to find a solution to keep Dane County residents, and people all over the country, afloat.
“If we can get one more influx to get us through this fall and winter, we’ll come out on the other side much better than if we if we don't have any more dollars coming in.”