Housing providers already feeling the impact waiting for federal funds amidst new Trump conditions

Celina McKenney has bills to pay, and a lot of people rely on her to pay them. 

As co-executive of Share and Care House, a nonprofit in Pierce County that provides permanent supportive housing to over 140 people, McKenney oversees the money coming in and going out. One of the many things her organization does is pay for clients’ leases. 

For over a decade, it has used funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

This year, McKenney said they’re expecting over $2 million from three HUD grants, which would amount to nearly 30% of their operating budget. The rest comes from Guardianship and Representative Payee programs, Pierce County Eviction Prevention, Housing and Essential Needs program, and Pierce County Homeless Housing Program funds.

But then, at the end of April, McKenney and staff from other nonprofits that use those federal funds met with Pierce County and learned that the money might not be coming.

The Trump administration put new conditions on the grant funding, which include that award recipients not use grant funds to promote “gender ideology or “elective abortions.” The conditions would also require recipients to certify that they do not not operate any programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion and that the money will not support people living in the country who are undocumented. The conditions would also make grant recipients verify the immigration status of those they serve. 

Across the country, local governments, including Pierce County, are suing the administration over those conditions, which they say the president doesn’t have the power to impose.

“These contracts are designed to coerce our participation in extreme political agendas and we’re not gonna participate in it,” said Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello. 

In a court hearing on Wednesday, a federal judge told attorneys from both sides of the case that she would issue a preliminary injunction on the order. Pierce County said it has not yet received its grant award or the court’s written order. It is waiting for that order to determine whether it can sign the contracts and distribute the grant funding without being required to comply with the conditions imposed by the Trump administration.

Mello said the organizations are feeling a tremendous amount of chaos and uncertainty, and that Pierce County relies on these funds to house individuals who would otherwise be homeless. 

“ One of our grants was supposed to start this month,” McKenney said. “So while we’re waiting, it’s just this beyond stress of coming up with all these different plans.”

Without the funds, McKenney said she’s had to have serious conversations with her staff about layoffs.

Share and Care House works by leasing units throughout the county. Because they’re contractually held to those agreements, they have to keep paying those leases. McKenney said they don’t want to put their clients in a perilous place.

“ Share and Care House really has no choice but to continue operating, whether we get the funds or not,” McKenney said.

The organization is looking at reducing staff to what McKenney called a skeleton crew. With less staff, McKenney said they won’t be able to provide as many services for their clients. Case managers would likely be handling twice as many clients as before, meaning less one on one time. 

McKenney said she is in complete agreement with the county’s decision to not sign on to those conditions. She mentioned the importance of having a diverse staff to represent diverse clients and their drive to celebrate and lift up that diversity. 

“ We’re not gonna change how we do things just to get the money,” McKenney said.

Another organization in the county that relies on this federal funding was already preparing for a decreased aid award.  Tonya Tunnell-Thornhill, executive director of Exodus Housing, said this year, they were only going to receive $13,000 compared to the usual $400,000 they’ve received in the past. 

Exodus Housing assists survivors of domestic violence. 

Tunnell-Thornhill said her organization has spent the past few months trying to figure out how they’ll make up that difference in funding, but she said now other similar organizations will be scrambling, too.

Tunnell-Thornhill said with less funding, she hopes the roughly 100 clients they serve now won’t be impacted, but any future clients could be.

“ I could just ballpark and say it could be 30 to 40 families that unless we find some other funding, we won’t be able to serve,” Tunnell-Thornhill said. 

Tunnell-Thornhill said she hopes to keep staff and serve as many people as possible by finding other funding. 

According to Pierce County, an additional requirement on these federal grant awards is that the county must certify, under penalty of perjury and with the threat of liability under the False Claims Act, that it will comply with newly imposed terms by the Trump administration.

The county said that Mello cannot, in good conscience or legal confidence, sign such a certification.

“ Without these monies, we’re at real risk of not paying the rent for literally hundreds of individuals and these folks returning to the streets,” Mello said.