Green Bay Council approves funding for New Community Shelter, JBS project

GREEN BAY – During its May 20 meeting, the Green Bay City Council unanimously approved that $500,000 of Tax Incremental District Affordable Housing funds be allocated to the New Community Shelter capital campaign project and $309,000 in ARPA funds be allocated to the JBS project to provide “adequate funding for the project budget to match a Wello grant award.”

“Twenty-one years ago, the city gave us money for our current facility, and we've done some pretty amazing things. We really want to continue that, and we think this is a great project to do that,” New Community Shelter Development Director Kris Olson told the board.

New Community Shelter provides emergency shelter, a transitional living program and a community meal program in the community.

Wello Management Consultant Tara Yang and Executive Director Natalie Bomstad also addressed the board.

“We're a local nonprofit here, and we're asking for funding to build the JBS urban barn. We were able to attain a federal grant called the RFSI (Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure.) It's a grant that supports food system work, and with that grant, we're able to secure funding to purchase equipment for the JBS urban barn. So, we're hoping to really support the socially disadvantaged farmers around our community here, and as we know, the majority of the farmers who sell produce at the farmers markets, there's over 60% of them who we have worked with for the past three years,” Yang said.

“Some of these farmers, this is their sole income and with this building and the equipment that we're able to secure, it'll help them really make this a sustainable business for not just them, but the generations to come as well.”

Wello was awarded a $316,255.60 RFSI federal grant, and in order to accept that grant, the city committed a $309,000 cash match.

“We think this is a really innovative approach to looking at a space and looking and kind of reimagining what it could be. How can we have a space that is multi-dimensional and can have mixed-income housing? How can it be activated in terms of a boulevard? How do we create a space that also really leans into the agricultural history of Northeast Wisconsin, which is in farming, and that farming future is changing. And so we really see this as an incredible opportunity to really invest in kind of a transformation hub of sorts, something that is multifaceted, that has multiple uses,” Bomstad added.

Alder Joey Prestley proposed an amendment to change the $309K in ARPA funds to $750K to match the Wello grant and build public restrooms.

While that amendment failed, Council President Brian Johnson made a motion to refer staff to present bathroom construction costs and funding back to the finance committee.

The original motion passed 11-0 without the funding adjustment.