Federal Recovery Funds Dashboard

Summary

The pandemic caused disproportionate economic hardship to Black and Latinx communities. That, coupled with decades of disinvestment and discriminatory policies, could worsen the wealth gap, which has kept Black and Latinx communities from achieving economic mobility.

Several sources of federal funding, including state and local fiscal relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), provided immense flexibility for the City, County, and State to invest in an equitable and inclusive economic recovery.  

By providing additional clarity around how federal funds are being disbursed locally and for what purposes, we can begin to understand and hold ourselves collectively responsible for ensuring the Chicago region recovers equitably and inclusively.  

The Federal Recovery Funds Dashboard centralizes the data in a way that hasn’t been done before, providing access to a transparent and comprehensive landscape of where the money has gone and for what purpose.*

The Trust will also be developing a set of metrics and indicators to assess if resources have effectively been used to narrow the gaps between Black and Latinx households, businesses, and neighborhoods compared to their white counterparts and see gains across our entire region.

*The dashboard was developed with support from the Kresge Foundation through the Shared Prosperity Partnership.

What’s in the Dashboard

The chart below shows in percentages how $6.5 billion in federal recovery funds have been appropriated to the topic areas tracked in the dashboard. 

Note: The total amount tracked in the dashboard is $11.5 billion. Currently, the data for the remaining $5 billion in CARES Act funds is unavailable. As more information becomes available, the dashboard will be updated.

Spending Snapshot

[As of September 29, 2022. Visit the dashboard for the latest data.]

1. Community Investment: Although the City, County, and State may spend ARPA funds through the end of 2026, a significant amount of appropriated funds to support small businesses have already been spent, helping hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners throughout the region recover lost revenue caused by the pandemic.  
2. Housing: Almost all housing assistance funds were appropriated directly from the federal government, primarily to provide emergency rental assistance. The City of Chicago, however, has appropriated some of its discretionary funds to support complementary housing assistance such as legal assistance and rapid rehousing services.  
3. Workforce Development: Comparatively, workforce development is the most underfunded topic, receiving only 3 percent of all tracked funds in the dashboard.
4. Household Investment: Between the City of Chicago and Cook County, the region is piloting two historic guaranteed impact pilot programs, putting $53 million in unrestricted direct economic assistance in the hands of low-income households to help them meet needs.  
5. Community Safety: Although Congress did not appropriate funds specifically for community safety or violence prevention, the White House did encourage state and local governments to include this in their recovery plans and leverage their discretionary funds to support this work. Therefore, all federal funds allocated by the City, County, and State for community safety and violence prevention come from State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.

Questions?

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