Fresno spent nearly $100mil during the heat of coronavirus pandemic. Here’s where it went.

During the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic, California’s fifth-largest city spent tens of millions on various services. So where did it go?

How was all of Fresno’s $92.8 million CARES Act money spent over the last year? 

The public received a detailed breakdown at the City Council meeting last week, as the city’s finance department presented the specifics to the Council. 

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After the Federal CARES Act was signed into law on March 27 last year, the city received its lump sum on April 22, and the City Council approved a spending plan on June 30. 

So far, $89 million has been spent – 96 percent of the total – while the remaining funds will be used by the end of the year. 

The City Council split money between city departments ($74.7 million) and various community based organizations ($14.4 million).

Out of the money that was directed to city departments, $54 million went directly to covering the salaries for public safety departments as the city found itself in a $32 million budget shortfall due to the pandemic:

  • $36.5 million to the police department
  • $16.3 million to the fire department
  • $1.3 million to the city attorney’s office for the code enforcement officers

Here’s a look at how much the top 10 city departments received:

  • Police department: $36.7 million
  • Fire department: $16.8 million
  • Finance (including money for community based organizations): $13.8 million
  • General City Purpose (including money for community based organizations): $6.5 million
  • Public works: $3.9 million
  • PARCS: $2.9 million
  • Information Services Department: $2.9 million
  • Planning and Development: $1.8 million
  • City Attorney: $1.4 million
  • Department of Public Utilities: $900,000

Outside of salary reimbursement, the city used various nonprofit organizations to focus on ventures such as COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, housing grants, food assistance, homelessness projects and small business grants, among others. 

The city gave UCSF Fresno $2.3 million for its Mobile HeaL COVID-19 Testing and Health Screening Program, which provided three mobile sites across southwest, southeast and central Fresno.

Those sites administered 23,587 tests in total, averaging the cost at $496 per test.

Fresno Building Healthy Communities received $1 million to conduct contact tracing and quarantine support.

The nonprofit contact traced 1,246 people, which cost an average of $393 per person, and provided 456 people with quarantine support, costing $1,129 per person. 

North Fresno Primary Care received $520,000 to administer 5,692 COVID-19 tests. 

Six nonprofits were given a total of $1.9 million for residential housing retention grants.

There were 1,128 housing grants approved through a combination of CARES money and the General Fund. 

Seven different organizations received a combined $3.1 million for food assistance programs. That resulted in 115,493 food boxes distributed, serving 690,344 people. 

Homelessness projects totaled nearly $3.4 million, which included the city’s $2.8 million purchase of the Travel Inn, located west of Highway 99 north of Belmont Ave.

The Marjaree Mason Center received the other $500,000 and served 192 people over 17,644 combined nights of provided housing and 47,808 meals.

The average cost per person totaled $2,702. 

The city handed out $5.3 million in small business grants, averaging $6,626 for 415 businesses. 

The Central Valley Children’s Support Network received $1.8 million to provide childcare vouchers to essential workers and vulnerable populations.

In total, 160 families were served (273 children), and the vouchers cost $11,2020 per family.

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