Homeless advisory group asks county to plan for funding freeze

Presenter: After a freeze on federal funds, the chair of a local advisory group asks Lane County to prepare for thousands joining the ranks of the homeless. On Feb. 7, Richard Self:

[00:00:11] Richard Self (LEAGUE, chair): I would suggest that the county have a plan in place in case thousands of people end up homeless because of this administration. That is something that I think needs to be planned for in some way or another and if our funding is cut then what happens?

[00:00:31] Because a whole mess of people in my position with their income being SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and their housing subsidized by HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), we all may hit the streets all at once and I think that’s something the county needs to be prepared for rather than be surprised about.

[00:00:51] Presenter: The comments came at a meeting of LEAGUE, the Lived Experience Advisory Group for Unhoused Engagement. From Lane County, Amanda Borda:

[00:01:00] Amanda Borda: We are in a new administration at the federal level and there’s been a whole lot of things that have happened since the first day in office, as you are probably following and are aware.

[00:01:09] And so just on the federal funding side, obviously a lot of our funds come from the federal government, including our HUD funding, but also other funding like Head Start, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). So a variety of things that come either from the federal through the state or directly to us at Lane County.

[00:01:26] And so we’re sort of monitoring that situation right now. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot more information than you might see in the news. There’s been a lot of sort of paused communication from a lot of departments at the federal level. And so we’re not even getting a ton of communication that’s directly coming out that is not sort of an executive order form or from the White House itself. And so we actually don’t have much more information than you do.

[00:01:48] What we do know at this time, right, is that that federal funding freeze that occurred in those early days, there was a restraining order that has been issued by a judge, so at this point, that’s where it stands.

[00:01:58] We do have access to our funding currently. It was inaccessible for a day or two on our end, which did cause some panic. And we weren’t sure sort of what was going to happen with that or how things might be impacted.

[00:02:11] And so currently things are functioning as normal, as much as we can use the term normal.

[00:02:17] But we are accessing our funds, our programs are operating. So as we hear more, or as we understand things are coming out of the White House and from the federal government and from HUD, we will certainly communicate how that might impact our system.

[00:02:29] But I think at this point, we are anticipating there will be some level of impact on our system, right, as these changes roll out.

[00:02:37] We’ve already seen a number of pages from the HUD website, including equal access rule and the Violence against Women Act. So things that are related to sort of this crusade against ‘gender ideology and DEI,’ as the administration is calling that. So a lot of things are disappearing from the website related to those.

[00:03:00] The new HUD secretary has been directed to not enforce the Equal Access Rule, which still remains a current law. And so we’re just kind of, again, we don’t have any direct communication about any of those things from HUD or from the federal government. It is literally just what you are all are seeing as well.

[00:03:17] And so we are operating under our current contracts. We are moving forward with the understanding that all of those things are still in place and we will still be continuing to enforce those within our programs and in alignment with our values as Lane County and as a community.

[00:03:33] And so, again, as more comes out with that, we will just update you on any changes and requirements or laws or things that are actually impacting what’s happening.

[00:03:43] Presenter: Richard Self:

[00:03:44] Richard Self (LEAGUE, chair): Are there any plans, you know, emergency plans or any other things, a backup plan…?

[00:03:50] Presenter: Amanda Borda:

[00:03:51] Amanda Borda: At this time, we don’t have any. I know Lane County leadership is in conversations about any plans, should any of our funding sources go away or be impacted, right? That’s at the leadership level to discuss, though I don’t have any knowledge of any specific plans.

[00:04:07] In terms of our HUD COC funding, we do have current contracts in place so HUD would have to end those contracts in order for us to not continue those programs and that requires a whole set of steps by law under normal circumstances. So as of right now we have those current contracts.

[00:04:25] Presenter: Richard posed the same question to the county’s homelessness and community action manager, James Ewell.

[00:04:32] Richard Self (LEAGUE, chair): James, the same question I put to Amanda: Are there any plans, emergency plans, for either the loss of funding for unhoused programs in general, HUD, and everything else and or emergency plans if there is a whole bunch of new homeless people because of this administration’s actions, which could include me.

[00:04:57] Presenter: James Ewell:

[00:04:58] James Ewell: Yeah, I hear you Richard. I just was in a conversation with Kate (Budd), our division manager, and we were talking a lot about that, and I’m sure Amanda has echoed that there’s just a lot of unknowns right now, and there’s so much information coming out in so many executive orders and whatnot that the new president is focusing on, then it’s just, it’s like a day-by-day process.

[00:05:22] Kate did say that she was in a meeting earlier with OHCS (Oregon Housing and Community Services), about how they will work to support communities as they’re able, if HUD, you know, CoC (Continuity of Care) funding is lessened or goes away. And so that I think is helpful to know.

[00:05:40] I think we are very lucky that we have a governor right now who is interested in investing in homeless services. You know, I can’t imagine how much more scary it would it would be if we didn’t have a governor on the state level that was doing that and we were going through all these potential federal changes.

[00:05:57] So I know that’s not comforting information, but I think that the reality is none of us know right now what’s coming, what potentially could come.

[00:06:09] But the state and very much so, you know, Health and Human Services (the department that Amanda and I, you know, our division is under), is very focused on continuing the work, that our mission really has focused on and doing that in any way possible. But again, there’s no comforting answer at this time. And I think we’re all just learning together what kind of the new reality is going to look like.

[00:06:37] Presenter: Richard Self:

[00:06:38] Richard Self (LEAGUE, chair): Well, with the new edict from the Attorney General, on stopping all funding to sanctuary cities and states, that presents possibly a problem for me and for a whole bunch of other people.

[00:06:54] My income is Social Security, my housing is subsidized. I don’t know how long I could maintain it if my income was cut off, but I’m preparing myself as much as possible without packing everything for the worst case scenario, just in case, you know, that all happens, at least I’m preparing mentally.

So, I would think that there should be preliminary talks of a plan in the county at least in case, you know, we are overwhelmed here in Lane County with additional thousands of new homeless people to have to deal with. You would think that there should be at least some talks of a preliminary plan. And I would suggest if the county is not doing that, that they should.

[00:07:51] Presenter: Richard Self of LEAGUE says the new administration is following through on its vow to punish political enemies. With an end to funding for sanctuary cities and states, he warns that we could see thousands forced onto the streets.