A resolution approving a proposed Contract between the City and County of Denver and Impact Charitable for Disaster Relief Funding during the COVID-19 health crisis. Approves a contract with Impact Charitable for $750,000 and through 12-30-20 to administer the Left Behind Workers fund to provide cash assistance to Denver residents who were previously employed and lost such employment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, citywide (HRCRS-202054745). The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on 5-29-20. Councilmember Kniech approved filing this item on 6-4-20.
You're done on this one, Councilmember. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Skye, for pinch hitting on short notice there. We appreciate it. Madam Secretary, if you please put the next item on our screens. Council Member Kennedy I believe this one belongs to you. 534. Thank you, Mr. President. It does. Just to comment tonight. As our nation is appropriately focused on the history of racism and its impacts on black lives. The bill that is before us tonight in front of you is the resolution approving a contract that helps to mitigate harm experienced by another community that has also faced bias and exclusion . If we think about the thriving city that we lived in prior to COVID. Hotel workers, restaurant workers, janitors, cleaning buildings, window washers, many of the jobs that were impacted during the crisis, they were held by those who are left out of many of the systems in our country because of their immigration status or because of how they've been categorized by the federal government. These folks pay taxes and they helped our city thrive, but they're now unable to access the relief that has been set up for other workers. They can't access unemployment insurance or they've been excluded from the CARES Act. Now, these workers face the same challenges with housing, with food, getting a cell phone bill paid so that they can keep in contact with their loved ones, their doctor or their employer to be called back to work. So the city is investing in a left behind worker fund that will help $1,000 per eligible worker to help them with their emergency COVID relief. This bill was a partnership between the mayor's office, the Human Rights and Community Partnerships Team, and my office, and many community partners who really helped to bring this issue to the forefront and tell us the stories of the impacted workers. So I want to thank the immigrant defense table that was represented by the Colorado People's Alliance, by SEIU Local 105 and by together Colorado. And I want to help the folks who created the Left Behind Worker Fund. We are not the first ones at this party. The Left Behind Worker Fund was put together by two co advisors, Marc Newhouse and Katrina van Gas, and I would like to thank them personally. This is a passion project for them. They're not paid for this work, but they attracted funders together and said, Let's pool our resources to make an impact. Foundations like the Denver Foundation and the Rose Foundation and the Open Society Foundation put their dollars in to help attract our dollars and to help make a bigger impact for workers. And so I would like to urge other local governments in the metro area and across the state to consider supporting their residents who've been left behind from federal and state programs, just like Denver's doing. And I'd like to encourage other foundations to continue to grow their investments. And lastly, you can contribute individually to the Left Behind Worker Fund. If you got one of those CARES checks and maybe you didn't do anything special to earn it, and you were able to keep your job through this crisis and you didn't need it to pay your bills. Think about contributing a portion of it to workers who were left behind. You can find a link on their website. I want to thank my colleagues, each of whom took time to get briefed on this program, which was a direct file. Under our current crisis, we try to move things as quickly as possible to get them to the hands of those who are suffering. And so thank you for your cooperation in bringing this investment forward as quickly as we could. And it will be administered by community partners who will directly outreach to trusted communities to be able to identify those who may be eligible and get them applied and screened as quickly as possible. So I want to thank all the partners who made this possible and say, I'm very proud of our city for standing in the gap and mitigating the exclusion that has occurred due to federal policy, particularly. And along with Councilwoman Torres, this earlier comment, may I pray that Dakota recipients don't need this assistance because our Supreme Court will honor their role in our economy and in our communities. But should they need it, this fund would be there for them if they get left behind in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. All right, Madam Secretary, the next item on our screens and Councilmember Flynn. This one we need to put on the floor. So will you please put Council Resolution 231 on the floor?