The federal funding package that President Biden signed on Saturday, averting a partial federal government shutdown, includes more than $1.7 million grants for two Lancaster nonprofits, according to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey’s office.
YWCA Lancaster will receive $995,000 for its YForward renovation project and South Ann Concerned Neighbors will receive $750,000 for the mixed-use project it is planning at the former Shell’s Disposal and Recycling Center site at 640 S. Franklin St.
In all, 142 projects across Pennsylvania received funding totaling $172.5 million, Casey’s office said. They include initiatives targeting economic development, addiction, health and child nutrition.
About the projects
YWCA Lancaster’s grant will go toward restoration of the historic porch on the south side of its headquarters, facing East Orange Street and installation of a handicap-accessible elevator.
South Ann Concerned Neighbors’ grant, meanwhile, will support its plans to build a mixed-use project facing Chesapeake Street across from Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology’s Greiner Advanced Manufacturing Center.
It is to have a pizza shop and grocery on the first floor and two affordable apartments upstairs. The project budget is a little over $1 million, the nonprofit’s founder, Darlene Byrd, said last year.
Stevens College is using the rest of the site to build four affordable duplexes for sale to low- and middle-income city households. The project is in line to receive $500,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds from the city later this month.
YForward includes relocating YWCA’s Sexual Assault Prevention & Counseling Center and the addition of 16 apartments for the Kepler Hall residence program. It is budgeted at about $14 million. YWCA Lancaster has received $1 million in county ARPA and $500,000 in city ARPA for it, as well as at least $1.9 million through other state and federal programs.
