Economic Rebuilding
Proposal Details of the Mayor's Recommended ARP Spending, Round 1
Arts and Culture Workforce Support
Along with the tourism sector, the creative sector is among the most affected by the current crisis. Nationally, financial losses by nonprofit arts organizations are estimated to be $16.5 billion with 99% of producing and presenting organizations reporting cancelled events. Additionally, local businesses such as restaurants, lodging, retail and parking have been impacted by cancelled events and have seen a decline in audience ancillary spending. The U.S Census Bureau reports that arts, entertainment and recreation will take longer than 6 months to recover. Within the creative sector the workforce is by far the hardest hit with artists/creative workers in the gig economy and women showing the biggest job and income losses. National data sources indicate that 94% of creative workers report lost income, 62% are fully unemployed and 66% are unable to access the resources they need for their work. Prior to the pandemic, data on creative jobs in the Minneapolis Metro showed significant employment disparities between BIPOC and white workers.
This proposal provides funding for small for and nonprofit arts and cultural enterprises so they can hire, contract and train artists/creatives to assist with their pivots and re openings. This initiative enables creative enterprises to message their plans for present and future programming and re-engage audiences and donors. The proposal creates jobs for creatives with a focus on those that are the most impacted by COVID closures. Research shows that creative sector catalyzes and accelerates economic recovery, a growth in arts employment has a positive and casual effect on overall employment.
Career & Skill Building - Ambassador Program
Economic Impacts from COVID-19 caused mass layoffs. In Minneapolis more than 140,000 people filed for unemployment insurance in 2020 and the overall unemployment rate exceeded that of the State. Further the economic shocks impacted BIPOC residents at a higher rate than their white counterparts. There is a disparity between white and non-white people in educational attainment rates, wages earned, and unemployment or underemployment in Minneapolis. Addressing these disparities stabilize families and provide for opportunities to grow generational wealth.
This program expands outreach to people looking to connect into the workforce development system and gain job skill training assistance. It uses people with community connections, to act as resource ambassadors to break down barriers to program access. These ambassadors will target areas of the City with lower workforce participation rates.
Career & Skill Building - Green Industry Pathways
Economic impacts from COVID-19 caused mass layoffs. In Minneapolis more than 140,000 people filed for unemployment insurance in 2020 and the overall unemployment rate exceeded that of the State. Further the economic shocks impacted BIPOC residents at a higher rate than their white counterparts. There is a disparity between white and non-white people in educational attainment rates, wages earned, and unemployment or underemployment in Minneapolis. Addressing these disparities stabilize families and provide for opportunities to grow generational wealth.
This program provides focus on creating new career pathways within emerging and/or expanding green industries, such as solar, energy efficiency, and emerging technologies. It provides grants to community-based workforce training partners and industry partners to develop and deliver programing for people to gain skills in identified green sectors.
Career & Skill Building - Minnesota Works
Economic Impacts from COVID-19 caused mass layoffs. In Minneapolis more than 140,000 people filed for unemployment insurance in 2020 and the overall unemployment rate exceeded that of the State. Further the economic shocks impacted BIPOC residents at a higher rate than their white counterparts. There is a disparity between white and non-white people in educational attainment rates, wages earned, and unemployment or underemployment in Minneapolis. Addressing these disparities stabilize families and provide for opportunities to grow generational wealth.
This program is a multi-pronged approach working with community-based partners that combines job creation, training, employment, and entrepreneurship.
Cultural District Activation
The City established Cultural Districts to further racial equity, prevent displacement, preserve cultural identity, and fuel economic growth through the creation and prioritized implementation of new investment tools, policies, and practices historically disadvantaged neighborhoods of Minneapolis. COVID-19 prevention measures devastated small businesses in these areas, especially with BIPOC-owned businesses.
The Cultural District Activation provisions will increase capacity for community business organizations with funding to provide small-business navigation support and outreach, provide funding for community events and festivals to attract residents and visitors to the district, provide grants or funding to make capital or service improvements, advocate B-TAP services and subcontracted professional services as needed, provide matching funds for external building improvements, provide forgivable loans for internal building improvements and provide low- or no-interest loans for capital improvements for businesses and commercial property owners.
Minneapolis Guaranteed Basic Income Pilot
Minneapolis households earning 50% AMI or below often have to make difficult choices to prioritize immediate needs over longer-term growth opportunities. This can result in inadequate or unstable housing and inability to complete training or educational opportunities. Existing assistance programs cover certain costs and exclude others, limiting flexibility that households need to make the best decisions for their individual situations.
Provide an income boost of up to $500 per month for 24 months to seed household financial growth and stability for approximately 200 households.
Small Business Acceleration - 2% Loan Program
Pandemic prevention measures devastated small businesses due to mandatory closures, capacity restrictions, and other measures to slow the spread of the virus creating financial holes and increasing the time for full recovery to a pre-pandemic state. Historically during recovery periods, BIPOC entrepreneurs, especially Black-owned businesses, lag white entrepreneurs having more difficulty obtaining capital to rebound.
This program provides low- or no-interest loans for capital improvements for businesses and commercial property owners throughout the city.
Proposed Action Detail: CPED would administer this program as component of its small business lending program. These funds will provide additional loan capital for the 2% loan program with additional funds to buy-down the interest rate of the private-lender match to make the total loan more affordable for borrower.
Small Business Acceleration - B-TAP and D-TAP Service Expansion
Pandemic prevention measures devastated small businesses due to mandatory closures, capacity restrictions, and other measures to slow the spread of the virus creating financial holes and increasing the time for full recovery to a pre-pandemic state. Historically during recovery periods, BIPOC entrepreneurs, especially Black-owned businesses, lag white entrepreneurs having more difficulty obtaining capital to rebound.
This program provides increased appropriation to expand technical assistance through service contracts with participating organizations and providing new services with additional specialized service providers.
Small Business Acceleration - CDFI Support
Pandemic prevention measures devastated small businesses due to mandatory closures, capacity restrictions, and other measures to slow the spread of the virus creating financial holes and increasing the time for full recovery to a pre-pandemic state. Historically during recovery periods, BIPOC entrepreneurs, especially Black-owned businesses, lag white entrepreneurs having more difficulty obtaining capital to rebound.
This program provides seed or supplemental funds for Community Development Financial Institution (CDFIs) that lend money on a more flexible basis than traditional lenders to expand capacity to increase small business loan activity.
Small Business Acceleration - Commercial Property Development Fund
Pandemic prevention measures devastated small businesses due to mandatory closures, capacity restrictions, and other measures to slow the spread of the virus creating financial holes and increasing the time for full recovery to a pre-pandemic state. Historically during recovery periods, BIPOC entrepreneurs, especially Black-owned businesses, lag white entrepreneurs having more difficulty obtaining capital to rebound.
This program provides capital funding to be added to the Commercial Property Development Fund to continue to fund projects in the program pipeline.
Small Business Acceleration - Co-operative Creation and Support Fund
Pandemic prevention measures devastated small businesses due to mandatory closures, capacity restrictions, and other measures to slow the spread of the virus creating financial holes and increasing the time for full recovery to a pre-pandemic state. Historically during recovery periods, BIPOC entrepreneurs, especially Black-owned businesses, lag white entrepreneurs having more difficulty obtaining capital to rebound.
This program provides funds to finance working capital and cover start-up costs for Co-operative businesses development.
Small Business Acceleration - Minneapolis Recovery Fund
Pandemic prevention measures devastated small businesses due to mandatory closures, capacity restrictions, and other measures to slow the spread of the virus creating financial holes and increasing the time for full recovery to a pre-pandemic state. Historically during recovery periods, BIPOC entrepreneurs, especially Black-owned businesses, lag white entrepreneurs having more difficulty obtaining capital to rebound.
This fund provides flexible support for small businesses through three approaches: License fee reimbursement for fees owed to the city from March through December of 2021, current fee reductions for businesses forced to close due to economic hardship from the pandemic and are seeking to reopen, and general support for businesses who may have been left out of other government aid programs over the last year.