As DOGE ethos grips federal agencies, Montgomery County says it has not received ‘critical’ funding for unhoused residents
‘We are being ghosted by the federal government,’ said Commissioner Jamila Winder.
Three days before President Donald Trump took office, Montgomery County was awarded millions of dollars in federal funding to combat homelessness.
One month later, the county’s top Democratic officials say the money is nowhere to be found.
An unaccounted for $5 million grant was the subject of a news conference on the Montgomery County courthouse steps Friday morning, where Democratic commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder warned that without the funding, about 200 households were at risk of losing critical assistance that keeps residents off the streets.
“As of this moment, that money that our community depends on — that people’s lives depend on — has not been delivered,” Makhija said.
For decades, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded Montgomery County housing grants, which it then disburses to a handful of local nonprofits to help house unstable residents with rapid rehousing, rental assistance, and other services.
Montgomery County has faced a growing homelessness problem in recent years, with its unhoused population doubling since 2019 and tented encampments cropping up in Norristown, the county seat.
On Jan. 17, HUD awarded the county the multimillion “continuum of care” grant for those very services following a competitive bidding process, according to officials. Montgomery County allotted space in its annual budget for that money to be disbursed across nine housing-oriented groups.
But as the weeks stretched on, those expected funds never came, those officials said.
Makhija said that his office has since received “zero communication” from HUD as to whether the grant would be delivered before a March 1 deadline.
HUD did not immediately return a request for comment.
Montgomery County is hardly alone as state and local governments question whether agencies under the new Trump administration will deliver federal funding they rely on.
Since taking office last month, Trump has begun sweeping cost-cutting measures across the federal bureaucracy with the aid of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, slashing departments and bringing uncertainty to the fate of thousands of federal jobs and contracts.
Earlier this month, Gov. Josh Shapiro filed a lawsuit over $2.1 billion in federal funding for energy and environmental projects that the state’s top Democratic official said had been unconstitutionally frozen or temporarily placed on hold. The White House unfroze those funds this week, according to Shapiro’s office.
In Montgomery County, Makhija said he did not know whether the unreceived funding was a result of presidential action or “oversight or incompetence” within HUD.
After Trump’s appointment of business owner and former NFL cornerback Scott Turner to HUD, the secretary announced he would launch a “DOGE task force” to eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse” within the agency.
Meanwhile, Winder, the county’s other top Democrat, alleged the contract was stalled because of “confusion at the federal level.”
“The system is now broken,” Winder said, “and we are being ghosted by the federal government.”
Over a third of residents who will be affected by federal cuts to county housing services are children, Winder said, like those who are housed with Valley Youth House in Plymouth Meeting — a nonprofit whose funding is due on the first of March.
“Children will suffer,” Winder said. “These are real people, our friends and neighbors.”
When asked whether county officials would consider introducing litigation over the HUD grant, Makhija suggested all options were on the table.
“We are absolutely talking to our solicitor,” the commissioner said, though he hoped HUD would release the money voluntarily before lawyers get involved.
“We’re asking today that the federal government uphold its end of the deal.”