Radio silence from federal government puts Montco housing programs at risk as homelessness rises in the county

Montgomery County nonprofits are building contingency plans after the federal government missed a March 1 deadline to confirm $5 million in grant money that covers leases for hundreds of residents in rehousing programs.

County officials held a news conference last month calling on the federal government to release the funds that were promised to nine organizations across the county as part of a combined grant application. But the county still has not heard anything from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

While the money is scheduled to be delivered on different timelines, Montgomery County officials say they are facing radio silence from HUD — creating uncertainty and confusion over whether and when the critical dollars will arrive as President Donald Trump’s administration looks to slash federal spending.

“From some of the information we’re hearing it’s just that it’s chaos there, there’s going to be a mass number of layoffs, and it’s unclear who is going to make sure these funds actually get distributed,” said Neil Makhija, a Democrat who chairs the county board of commissioners.

The $5 million grant provides housing assistance for roughly 200 households through programs targeting a wide range of vulnerable populations, including young people and domestic violence survivors.

Delays in its delivery, or the absence of it, could have ripple effects across Montgomery County as those in the housing program lose their support, and support agencies lose their ability to move people from emergency shelters into more permanent housing. The result, advocates say, would be more people on the streets.

Montgomery County is evaluating its options for assisting nonprofits and considering litigation as it pushes the federal government to provide the needed funds, Makhija said.

“Even if we can have gap funding, it’s not as though there’s too much funding in housing right now,” he said. “We have homelessness that has been on the rise, and the cost of housing has certainly contributed to that.”

The nine nonprofit organizations included in the county grant are expecting the funds to hit at different times. Access Services, one of the recipients of the funds, is supposed to have its money by June 1.

The organization’s portion of the grant is primarily used to lease 15 apartments across Montgomery County to chronically homeless people with disabilities.

The residents in those homes typically stay for 18 to 24 months while receiving additional services designed to prepare them to afford homes on their own. If Access Services does not receive the funds by or near the June 1 deadline, it may have to begin canceling those leases, the group said.

“Vulnerable people would return to the streets and be living on the streets at a time where, you know, people have no place to stay outside. Encampments are being sweeped, people are cleaning up — they don’t want to see homelessness,” said Debra Curtin, the organization’s vice president for housing and children’s services.

Valley Youth House, which uses the grant program to provide housing to 27 adults and children in Montgomery County, was supposed to have funding starting March 1.

Lisa Weingartner, executive vice president at Valley Youth House, said it is not unusual for the bureaucratic process at HUD to mean funds are delivered late. However, she said, it is unusual that the organization has not even heard from the federal agency this year, leaving uncertainty and confusion.

Congress has voted to provide the funds, so Weingartner believes the money will eventually come. In the meantime, she said, Valley Youth House is lucky to have enough money to sustain the programs while it waits.

“We haven’t heard anything, and what we have heard is nobody knows what’s going to happen,” Weingartner said. “As an agency, we have been really thoughtful in our preparation of how do we sustain our programming, help youth and families stay in their homes, stay housed if there’s a delay.”

Not every program is that lucky.

Curtin, of Access Services, said the organization is still determining how much money it has to keep programs operational if the money does not arrive as scheduled in June. But it will be tight.

“We would have a little bit of a buffer, but we would not be able to independently sustain these programs,” she said.

For even one organization to stop services would have a ripple effect across Montgomery County, said Stacey Dougherty, executive director of Laurel House, a domestic violence shelter expecting to receive funds in October.

With fewer housing programs, more people will be in emergency shelters, Dougherty said, and with fewer people leaving shelter beds to go to permanent housing, there will be fewer spaces. The result, she said, would be more people on the street and more domestic violence victims stuck at home with their abusers.

“If one falls away or two falls away, it starts a domino effect of shelters filling up,” she said.

“It could snowball very quickly, not just for what happens for Laurel House services in general but also what happens when services for domestic violence victims are cut off, what happens to the rest of the social safety net in the community,” she added.