How would federal grant freeze affect Columbus? What to know as local leaders seek answers
The White House rescinded an order to pause federal grants and loans, which caused Columbus officials and organizations to scramble for more information about how the freeze could affect local services and projects.
A memo released Tuesday instructed federal agencies to pause all distribution of federal grants to evaluate whether the programs may be implicated by President Donald Trump’s executive orders “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
Programs that provide “direct benefits” to individuals were not subject to the pause, according to a White House news release. This includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SNAP. Other funds for small businesses, Pell Grants, Head Start, rental assistance and similar programs also would not be paused, according to the release.
“To act as faithful stewards of taxpayer money, new administrations must review federal programs to ensure that they are being executed in accordance with the law and the new President’s policies,” the release said.
U.S. District Judge Loren L. Alikhan issued an order blocking the freeze Tuesday afternoon, ensuring funds were not frozen at the previous deadline of Jan. 28 at 5 p.m. Alikhan’s block was scheduled to be in effect until Feb. 3.
An extended freeze on federal grants could have impacted several Muscogee County infrastructure projects, nonprofit organizations and services available to residents.
After the judge’s order, the memo was rescinded by the White House on Wednesday. But no further information was provided on whether the grants and loan may be paused in the future or if the process to evaluate each program may continue.
With no guidance from the state or federal level, Columbus government officials and nonprofit organizations began organizing Tuesday to find more information about the orders and determine how projects might move forward without federal funding.
Community Development Block Grants
One of the programs that could have been affected by the pause is the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG).
The Columbus Consolidated Government Community Reinvestment Department regularly uses these grants to help fund programs that support local businesses, offer services and increase affordable housing.
Some recent projects funded by CDBG include demolishing the former Georgia State Farmers Market and the Food Mill Shared Kitchen, a housing rehabilitation program and the Small Business Economic Relief Grant program.
Local organizations utilize money from the program to provide services to low- and moderate-income communities may also see a pause in some of their funding, Community Reinvestment Department director Rob Scott told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Scott and other Columbus officials immediately began taking steps Tuesday after learning about the pause on federal grants to find out if the city had access to funds that were already promised.
Since the order was rescinded, the funds are available to the city. But if the White House moves to freeze CDBG funding or decides its use isn’t in line with the administration’s policies, the city will have to determine how to move forward, Scott said.
“It gives us a chance to see who we are as a community and to leverage our commitment to the continued support of low-income households,” he said. “So, I’m watching.”
Housing and homelessness
While rental assistance programs like Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers and Project-Based Rental Assistance, utilized by the Ralston Tower, were not meant to be impacted by the pause, that didn’t mean funding for those programs was safe.
Funds for these programs and others that directly benefit Americans still may be reviewed by government agencies. The White House’s Tuesday news release instructed agencies to consult with the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) if they were concerned that any of the programs or activities were implicated by the president’s executive orders.
OMB would help “unwind these objectionable policies without a pause in the payments,” the Tuesday release said.
“Even a short pause in funding could cause significant harm to low-income families and their communities,” National Low Income Housing Coalition interim president and CEO Renee Willis said in a written statement.
While programs that directly benefit individuals had some level of protection, funds coming through government agencies still could have had an impact on people experiencing homelessness in Muscogee County.
SafeHouse Ministries receives federal funding from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs that helps get homeless individuals into permanent housing on a reimbursement basis, executive director Neil Richardson told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Losing federal funding could impact the organization’s budget by about 30%, he said.
“That’s a huge hit,” Richardson said.
The organization houses men, women and children experiencing homelessness. They have 213 beds in their shelters, with 104 beds for men and 54 beds for women and children.
SafeHouse also has four apartments for homeless families and rents 19 apartments to house 38 people who have mental health problems.
If SafeHouse doesn’t receive that funding for any extended period, it would have difficulty replacing the HUD money distributed by DCA, Richardson said.
One positive he sees is that Columbus organizations working to decrease homelessness have created a continuum of care network so the agencies can efficiently work together. United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley quickly began working to survey local agencies and get communications out about the freeze on federal grants on Tuesday, Richardson said.
“There’s a lot of communities where agencies are going to be every man for himself,” he said. “But we are all hands on deck here. We’re going to be working together.”
Along with working with other local agencies to meet the needs of the community, Richardson is also confident that the local community is generous in helping organizations when it comes to meeting social needs.
Despite this, Richardson worries that losing funding could negatively impact his employees and clients.
This may cause two huge changes in Columbus, he said.
First, the number of people who are homeless and unsheltered will increase because, if shelters can’t meet their budget, they won’t be able to help as many individuals.
“And then you’ve got the people who work in the homeless industry who are involved with case management trying to expedite people getting into housing,” Richardson said. “If that funding doesn’t exist, how are we keeping those people on staff?”
Richardson received no guidance from state or federal agencies on what to expect from the freeze before it was rescinded.
Other departments affected and federal workforce reduction
Infrastructure, housing and agencies working to decrease homelessness are only a few programs and projects that could have been affected by the order.
There are over 2,600 potentially affected programs across dozens of federal agencies and departments including HUD, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The CHIPS Incentives Program and the CHIPS Research and Development program were also under scrutiny as part of the Department of Commerce.
The Chattahoochee Hub for Innovation and Production of Semiconductors (CHIPS4CHIPS) is a nonprofit coalition aiming to grow the semiconductor industry in Columbus. This coalition, which helped recruit the semiconductor manufacturer Micromize to Columbus, receives support at the federal, state and local levels through grants, incentives and policies.
As government agencies and other organizations scrambled to respond to the order to pause federal funding, the Trump administration also offered about two million federal workers the option to resign in efforts to reduce the federal workforce.
Letters informed employees that, if they did not accept the offer to resign, there was no guarantee their positions would not be eliminated. This “deferred resignation” is available to all full-time federal employees except for military personnel of the armed forces, U.S. Postal Service employees, positions related to immigration enforcement and national security and any other position specifically excluded by the employing agency.
This issue has been confusing, Richardson said, but he plans to take advantage of old advice.
“I remember when Desert Storm was going on and hearing from (then-Secretary of Defense Donald) Rumsfeld every now and then,” he said. “He’d say, ‘Quit listening to the first report and get some more data.’ And I think that’s where we are. We’re waiting to get more data.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM.
