Hunter
07/28/22
The Iowa City Human Rights Commission is asking local governments to work together and help the over three hundred families who qualified for but didn’t receive payments from American Rescue Plan Act funds this summer.
Earlier this month, Johnson County announced that of the 2411 applications received for the one-time $1400 payments, 2238 were determined eligible. The County allocated $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the direct payment program, supplemented by a $1.35 million allocation from Iowa City and $27,000 from Coralville.
The funds were enough to cover 1919 residents, leaving 319 who qualified but were not chosen through a random selection process.
The Human Rights Commission passed a resolution at this week’s meeting, urging all entities, the county and city councils within Johnson County to come together and fund payments for those 319 residents. The resolution goes on to say, “They are the people who contribute to our communities in total, not just the city limits they reside in or out of, where they work, where their children go to school and where they spend their money all across city boundaries.”
The HRC says they trust that the Iowa City City Council and the other county entities can find a funding solution as quickly as possible, saying that waiting is costly.
