NC nonprofits providing services to homeless residents worry that an interruption in federal funding will impact their ability to provide help. (Photo: Greg Childress/NC Newsline)
A funny thing happened this week to Dr. Latonya Agard, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition to End Homelessness (NCCEH), as she and more than 100 nonprofit leaders who serve people experiencing homelessness gathered on a Zoom call to share concerns with congressional aides about a funding freeze at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Early in the call, which took place Wednesday, Agard received a message alerting her that the HUD funding agreement she’d been anxiously awaiting had actually been processed.
Agard shared her good news with NC Newsline in an email.
“I wanted to let you know that we just received a message from the HUD Field Office in Greensboro that our funding agreement is being processed and should be ready for signing by COB [close of business] today,” Agard wrote.
A last minute reprieve
In an interview with NC Newsline ahead of the call, Agard was worried that NCCEH would have to lay off several staffers if a nearly $1 million HUD planning grant awarded to the organization remained frozen or was eliminated. The NCCEH provides technical assistance to nonprofits that deliver direct services to people experiencing homelessness. It helps them, for example, prepare funding applications to submit to HUD.
“We are facing layoffs of four of our staff, which is incredibly difficult,” Agard said before learning about the HUD award. “Those four staff members work directly with our [NC] Balance of State partners and that [the freeze] diminishes our capacity even more. We will only have three staff members dedicated to this work to cover 79 counties.”
Several nonprofits that provide direct services to people experiencing homelessness also shared that their organizations were notified this week that funding had been restored.
Kerry Bashaw, executive director of Brick Capital, a Sanford-based nonprofit, said his organization received a HUD award letter Tuesday to continue a permanent supportive housing program for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.
Brick Capital received the grant under the Biden administration, he said. It would have ended March 31 had it not been renewed. Brick Capital is still concerned, however, that it won’t be able to access the award in time to pay rent subsidies next month.
“That’s definitely a big relief,” Bashaw said. “It’s been touch and go for the past month, month-and-a half. Now, it’s not a matter of if, which is nice. Now, it’s a matter of when. Will we be able to get our renewed funds by the end of this month so that we can help with the rental subsidies that are due for April?”
Brick Capital also relies on federal funding to develop housing and to provide homebuying opportunities and counseling for low-income families.
Ninety percent of Brick Capital’s funding comes from federal sources, Bashaw said.
“It’s crucial for that to continue for us to continue to serve the families that we do,” Bashaw said. “We can’t help those who are homeless, who need a hand up and help break the cycle of homelessness without HUD funding.”
Brick Capital is part of the NC Balance of State Continuum of Care to which Agard referred. It was created in 2005 to help rural communities secure HUD funding. The funding supports homeless populations with permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing and supportive services. A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a collaborative effort for planning and funding homeless services. There are 11 smaller Continuums of Care throughout the state.
A plea for relief
Wednesday’s meeting with congressional aides was called to give local leaders from the 12 Continuums of Care a chance to show congressional leaders the impact funding cuts and freezes will have on the people they represent.
Agard’s and Bashaw’s stories and others shared by nonprofits during the Zoom session show the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s haphazard approach to cutting costs in the name of improving efficiency.
Through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, President Donald Trump has ordered massive layoffs, funding freezes and budget cuts. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees fired from a half dozen federal agencies. The judge said the justification for the firings had been a “sham.”
Like many nonprofits across the country that depend on federal grant dollars, NCCEH and Brick Capital received an email in late January notifying the organizations that their HUD grants had been frozen. The email provided no guidance about when or if the grants would be restored.
“With this came an abrupt absence of guidance from HUD and no technical assistance to help us understand how we were to proceed,” said Debra Susie, a project specialist with NCCEH who moderated the Zoom call.
A website where nonprofit organizations accessed approved funds to reimburse expenses such as payroll and rent to landlords went offline with no guidance of when the portal would come back up, Susie said.
The nonprofits immediately began contacting congressional representatives. Trump’s executive order freezing funding was rescinded but the funding hasn’t been restored as quickly as it was frozen.
“Here we are, six weeks later to the day with grant delays and the continued confusion and uncertainty that generates among our local governments and organizations,” Susie said. “These agencies use those resources to effectively implement data-driven strategies to address homelessness across your congressional districts.”
Making a tough time tougher
The chaos caused by the funding freeze could not have come at a worse time for organizations that provide services to people experiencing homelessness, Susie said.
“All of this comes at a time when that data reveals in the most recent years that two out of three North Carolinians experiencing homelessness are in it for the first time,” Susie said.
HUD’s most recent “Point-in-Time” (PIT) count found 11,626 individuals experiencing homelessness across the state. That’s an increase of 19% over the 2023 count. North Carolina’s (PIT) count closely mirrored the nation’s count. The nation saw an 18% increase in 2024 compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, Agard said few nonprofits that provide services to people experiencing homelessness could have imagined how “chaotic and anxiety-laden” the new year would be in Trump’s second term.
“I really assumed it would be a fight to resume or increase funding levels,” Agard said. “I did not assume it meant, perhaps funding drying up or funding cycles being interrupted so that there is so much uncertainty in our system right now.”