El Paso nonprofits, higher education institutions, health care providers and governments were gripped by uncertainty Tuesday, trying to understand the potential impact of a Trump administration order that temporarily suspended billions of dollars in federal grants.
“It was not a nice way to wake up this morning, but it’s not totally unexpected,” said Miguel Hernandez, executive director of the El Paso County Housing Authority largely funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. “When Trump took office the first time, he also cut the HUD budget.”
Hernandez said like everyone else, he and his staff are scrambling to figure out exactly how the federal grant suspension impacts their budget and services. The authority serves 315 families with project-based apartments and voucher programs throughout the county but outside the El Paso city limits and outside the Town of Anthony, both of which have their own housing authorities.
In a memo to federal agencies Monday, Matthew J. Vaeth, the acting head of the Office of Management and Budget, said “federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
The memo exempted Social Security and Medicare payments, as well as other direct assistance to individuals. But the vague language in the memo caused widespread confusion among organizations receiving federal grants, and drew criticism from Democrats in Congress, who said the Trump administration had no power to withhold money approved by Congress and signed by the president.
In a follow-up email to El Paso Matters, Hernandez said that given the scope of the order, the authority is assessing whether it will specifically impact rental assistance “or other critical funds that help us provide affordable housing in our community. At this time, the full extent of the freeze’s impact is unclear.”
El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, the region’s primary hunger relief organization and a Feeding America member, is working to understand how the executive orders may impact its operations and funding. The food bank distributes millions of pounds of food annually to 132 partner pantries and serves 160,000 food-insecure individuals across the Borderland, and is funded in part by federal grants.
“El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank is currently reviewing the potential impact of the new executive orders on our operations and funding. At this time, we are working to determine which grants, if any, may be affected,” said Lonnie Valencia, the food bank’s director of communications. “We will provide further comment once we have a clear understanding of if, when, and how we may be impacted.”
The organization plays a vital role in addressing food insecurity in the region, providing food assistance through mobile pantries, SNAP applications and nutrition education.
The Opportunity Center for the Homeless, which operates several shelters for families, men, women and the older population, relies on a $450,000 annual grant for its operations that could now be in jeopardy, said Executive Director John Martin.
Martin said the organization is in the middle of a $15 million expansion that would add about 165 new beds for the local homeless population to its network of shelters, most administered through the city’s HUD, HOME and Community Development Block Grants funded with federal dollars. He said he doesn’t know yet if federal funding for those projects will be cut or what other programs may be impacted.
“Yes, we are very concerned,” he said, adding that the center has seen an increase in local homeless people since the pandemic. “We knew the numbers would increase during the pandemic and anticipated they would decline after. We are not seeing that. In fact, we are seeing numbers remain steady and even increase slightly.”
Martin distinguished that the services and population numbers he’s citing refer to the “local homeless,” and doesn’t account for the temporary increase in “international homeless,” or migrants, that the organization assisted at the height of the arrivals and have mostly disappeared since late last year, he said.
In comparison, the Rescue Mission of El Paso is almost exclusively privately funded, primarily through local donors, Chief Executive Director Blake Barrow said. The organization provides shelter, meal services, street outreach and drug and alcohol relapse prevention programs to the homeless and other at-risk populations.
Barrow said the Rescue Mission received some federal funding through the county when it operated shelters for migrants, which were closed Dec. 31 after a sharp decline in migrants arriving at the border – and in anticipation that Trump would cut funding for migrant services.
“If you rely heavily on the federal dollars, then it could change with the wind,” he said. “We cannot afford to do that to the people we serve.”
Disclosure: El Paso Matters CEO Bob Moore is board chair of El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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