Virginia Beach City Council allocates $10 million ARPA funding to flooding, food insecurity

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — The Virginia Beach city council has approved a plan to spend over $10 million of COVID-19 pandemic relief funding.

This is money the city received from the federal government as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.

Leondra Head/ WTKR

Virginia Beach Councilman Josh Schulman says the city will spend the money on essential needs such as flooding prevention—a major hurdle in Virginia Beach—and food insecurity.

"Seven million dollars of it is going towards Neighborhood Strong Water improvements to take care of neighborhoods from a flooding perspective," Virginia Beach City Councilman Joashua Schulman said. "There’s money going towards park rehabilitation. Half a million dollars is going to help food insecurity as we allocate that money to the Food Bank and Meals on Wheels."

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Schulman said the city council had to allocate the money this year or the city would have had to send the money back to the federal government.

He said the money has to be spent by the end of 2026.