HARRISONBURG, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) – Harrisonburg City Council approved a proposal for the city’s Transit Strategic Plan.

The Harrisonburg Department of Transportation has collected community feedback over the past several months to help formulate the plan, which would add more buses and optimize the routes, among other changes.

During last night’s city council meeting, council member Dany Fleming said that the plan would be an efficient use of the city’s transportation resources.

“We do have limited resources, but this increases the efficiency and, at the same time, is adding service,” Fleming said. “I think moving forward, this would give us more options for how we can expand from that and meet the needs of our community.”

The strategic plan will be implemented over the next 10 years pending approval from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.

A population decrease, but an increase in low-income households

Harrisonburg City Council heard an update last night from the United Way of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County about the area’s ALICE population. Although the latest report shows a decrease in Harrisonburg’s residents, the city’s ALICE households have increased.

ALICE stands for ‘Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed,’ and described households that struggle to meet ends meet, but are above the federal poverty line, making them ineligible for most government assistance programs In Harrisonburg, 37% of residents fall under the ALICE threshold – a two percent increase since last year.

United Way Community Impact Director Jo Benjamin told City Council that the increase was caused by a loss of pandemic-era financial assistance, in some cases up to $15,000 for a household with children.

“There were changes to the child tax credit and there was a change in 2020 of the frequency they were giving monthly payments for families with children, and that made a huge difference for those families” Benjamin said. “That has gone away, so the pandemic’s over, but we still see the effect of that going on.