Three promising uses of COVID-19 stimulus money in Northeast Ohio: Stimulus Watch

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Since 2021, Northeast Ohio has received hundreds of millions in federal COVID-19 stimulus money through the American Rescue Plan Act.

While some of that money seems to be headed for effective and well-meaning programs, some isn’t.

With that in mind, Stimulus Watch set out to highlight some ARPA-funded projects in Northeast Ohio that seem to be among the most promising.

For this story, we chose programs that met several criteria: They created or expanded on an innovative approach to a long-standing social issue; they provided enough money to potentially see a difference; and they are backed up by either data or success stories of similar programs elsewhere.

Cleveland’s Crisis Intervention Teams

How often do we hear about a violent interaction between police and a person experiencing a mental health crisis?

Between 2015-2020, a quarter of all fatal police shootings involved someone with a mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

It’s not just fatal shootings. People with “serious” mental health issues are 11 times as likely to experience police uses of force than those without “serious” mental health issues, according to a peer-reviewed 2021 study from BMC Psychiatry. They’re also more likely to sustain injuries because of those use of force incidents, according to the study.

Preventing unnecessary uses of force is just one of the reasons police departments, such as Cleveland’s, have been sending mental health professionals to certain emergency calls. Cleveland’s pilot program began years ago, but in early November, the city unanimously approved spending $5 million to double the size of its first-responder teams tasked with responding to people having mental health crises.

The pilot program claims to have resolved 98% of “crisis intervention incidents” without an arrest and 85% of incidents without using handcuffs. In 2021, 900 people who interacted with a crisis intervention team accepted mental health treatment or were referred to services, according to data from Cleveland’s Division of Police.

While those numbers are encouraging, data indicate they could show even more results with a larger staff. The previous system paid for one crisis intervention team for each of the city’s five police districts, and they were only on the scene 10-15% of the time, cleveland.com reported previously.

The program is promising, but questions remain. For one, it’s unclear how the city will continue to fund the program – the vast majority of the costs are salaries – once the ARPA money dries up. Two, the city is still deciding whether they want to go with a “co-responder” model or a “care” model. The former sends mental health professionals alongside police officers, while the latter sends mental health professionals in lieu of police officers for certain calls.

Summit County’s bold broadband plan

Fast, reliable internet access is our gateway to the modern world.

Without it, good luck applying for a job, working remotely, attending online classes or participating in any part of modern culture, much of which revolves around the internet.

In June, Summit County announced a $35 million ARPA investment in creating a “fiber optic cable ring” to help first responders in the 31 municipal governments within the county. The idea is to supercharge police, EMS and fire by providing gigabit internet speed, which is roughly seven times faster than the 2021 nationwide average.

While this project is just for first responders – an investment valuable in its own right – city officials say this could someday become available to residents.

Publicly owned broadband is a popular idea now, and has success stories in places like Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the city’s publicly owned broadband service allows residents to access internet speeds that are both faster and more affordable than commercial carriers, according to Cnet.

It will be years before we know whether Summit County will even attempt to create a publicly owned broadband network for residents. However, with $35 million invested in infrastructure, some of the key building blocks are there.

Lakewood sewer improvements

I can’t think of anything less sexy than discussing municipal governments paying for sewer improvements to prevent the future burden of debt service on taxpayers.

Actually, I can think of something less sexy — raw sewage flowing into Lake Erie when those sewers overflow, as it has done nearly 2,000 times in the last six years.

One of the hard realities about governing in Northeast Ohio is you’re going to have to spend millions fixing up century-old sewer systems. Either that, or you’re going to pollute the area’s greatest natural asset while incurring the wrath of the feds.

That’s why Lakewood is investing $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act money – over half its total $47 million allocation – toward improving its archaic sewer system. It’s a down payment toward the astronomical cost of fixing Lakewood’s sewer system, $300 million and climbing.

Granted, Lakewood is legally required to improve its sewer systems because of the Clean Water Act, which was originally signed in 1972. It’s also not the only government agency in Northeast Ohio to spend money on improving sewers.

However, Lakewood’s project is noteworthy because of the large percentage of ARPA money being spent on a long-term goal. It would have been easy for Mayor Meghan George to spend that money on pet projects or political pork, but the commitment to improving sewers means the city doesn’t have to borrow as much in the future, saving residents and ratepayers money in the long term.

It’s not exciting, but it’s crucial. And it’s in all of our interests to keep Lake Erie clean.