CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - Scared and fed up, people living in the Garden Hills neighborhood say their community has been neglected far too long. Residents want city council to use money from the American Rescue Plan to fix the neighborhood, while also helping Champaign Police. 

Residents like Chad Smith are frustrated.

"We are getting the shrug off from, you know, 'there's nothing we can do', there's plenty that they [city council] can do, they just have to be willing to do it," he said.

Smith said he has had enough.

"We've been pushed off for so long," he added.

For years, the Garden Hills resident said his neighborhood has been going downhill. 

During Tuesday night's city council meeting, Smith and his neighbors told the council it's time to act. One resident, Kiersten Dillender, has been living in the neighborhood for three years.

Dillender said she's terrified when she walks home everyday.

"There's no way for me to get back to my home without walking through blocks and blocks of unlit neighborhoods at night with the level of crime and violence that's been going on, not just me, nobody should have to do that," she said. 

Creel Unbeloved has been a resident for 21 years. She tells WAND News how she has seen crime skyrocket, along with other issues in her community.

"We don't have a grocery store but we are surrounded by liquor stores," said Unbeloved. "We don't have anything for the kids to do in this park, there's not a splash park. We don't have activities, like a swimming pool."

Residents said their main concerns are flooding, the lack of lighting and sidewalks, and the increase in crime. They said they want to stop the neighborhood from sinking any further and said they deserve to be invested in it through Biden's American Rescue Plan.

They said the funding is key and instrumental to the revitalization of Garden Hills. 

Some city council members, such as Will Kyles and Alicia Beck, said they are on board with helping Garden Hills. Kyles said during Tuesday night's city council meeting, he's all in.

"As far as aggressiveness, I'll be willing to take the whole 25 over the two year plan," he said. "We do need to put a huge portion of the ARP money into not only infrastructure, but into people." 

"White community, or any community, when we come together on one accord, I think there's power. And so with that being said, I look forward to supporting this budget, so that we can appropriately work on the issues that were discussed tonight."

The push for change is far from over. City council will hold several more study sessions on how to spend the $25 million. Garden Hills residents said they'll be at every session.Â