For five years, St. Petersburg had an extra $45.4 million to spend on some of the city’s hardest problems, from homelessness and housing costs to hunger and access to mental health care. By the end of this year, that money will be gone. The problems it helped address will not.
St. Petersburg City Council members got a look at that approaching deadline Thursday during a Youth and Family Services Committee meeting. As they reviewed what the federal money paid for, the discussion turned toward what happens after it runs out. Some investments will last for decades. Other services need someone to keep paying for them, and St. Petersburg will not be alone looking for money.
“Just like the city right now is feeling the pressure, every organization here that’s doing nonprofit work is trying to find funding,” Council Chair Lisset Hanewicz said.
St. Petersburg received $45.4 million through ARPA, the federal government’s response to the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials ultimately directed more than $34 million toward housing and another $11.1 million toward health and social programs. The city met a 2024 deadline to commit the money, and now has until Dec. 31 to spend it.
The money helped finance 515 affordable apartments and provide temporary shelter to 160 homeless families with children, with 96% ultimately moving into permanent housing. It also paid for mental health care, food programs, assistance for people who had experienced chronic homelessness and monthly payments to young adults leaving foster care.
What happens next depends largely on what the city spent the money on.
An apartment built with federal money doesn’t disappear Dec. 31. Neither does a refrigerator. St. Petersburg spent $100,000 strengthening its summer food program, including buying 17 refrigeration units that remain in use at recreation centers. The program provided supplemental food to about 6,100 children over three summers.
A counselor, case manager or monthly financial payment is different. Someone has to pay for it again next year.
St. Petersburg’s Community Support Hub is one of the clearest examples. The ARPA-funded effort connects residents with counseling and help finding housing, employment and health care. The broader mental health initiative has reached more than 1,250 residents and provided more than 2,000 counseling sessions.
Its long-range plan lists the expiration of ARPA as a financial threat and sets a goal of securing about $1.3 million annually to sustain operations for at least another three years.
The Hub is not expected to close when ARPA ends. Amy Foster, the city’s Community and Neighborhood Affairs Administrator, said disaster relief money will allow the work to continue for now. Beyond that, its partners are looking for a longer-term solution.
Sandra Braham, president and chief executive officer of Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services, described a search that has yet to produce one obvious successor to ARPA.
“We’ve been exploring opportunities,” Braham said. “There have been none initially, but we are committed to continuing to seek funds.”
Instead, she said, the future may be “piecemeal,” with different organizations and funding sources picking up individual services that had been supported through ARPA.
Other programs have already reached the end of that road.
The city spent nearly $950,000 on a program providing 88 young adults who had aged out of foster care with $500 a month for one year, along with financial coaching and other support. The final payments are going out this month. Foster said staff explored using disaster relief funding to continue the grants but found that the money could not be used for that purpose.
The expiration of ARPA also means losing something less obvious: a funding source that gave the city unusual flexibility.
That became apparent after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. St. Petersburg redirected $160,000 in ARPA money to help repair eight severely damaged homes. Staff could combine those dollars with other assistance to pay for repairs that more restrictive programs would not cover.
Foster had a simple description for what that flexibility had meant. “We were a little spoiled under ARPA,” she said.
At a storm-damaged house, that difference can be significant. A homeowner might need a roof, mold remediation and new drywall, but another source of government assistance may pay for only some of that work. ARPA could fill those holes.
That flexibility disappears with the money.
St. Petersburg has about $1.48 million of its original $45.4 million allocation left to spend. Staff said projects remain on track to meet the Dec. 31 deadline, with unused personnel money potentially shifted to other eligible projects.
After that, the federal account closes. Council Member Copley Gerdes said there will still be something to celebrate.
“I’m going to be sad on 12/31, but also it’s a massive celebration too,” Gerdes said, “because you put $45 million to work over the next 99 years.”