Jimiyu Evans woke up at 5am, on three hours sleep, full of dread, to see if he could still get into his federal funding account from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
No dice. His account was down “for maintenance” according to the website. Evans started calling around to other leaders of state agencies and local non-profits working on homelessness, mental health, substance abuse treatment and disability services, and the story was the same, he said.
The federal government was closed for business. Soon enough, his agency might be as well.
“Any expenses for the month of December, I will not be able to reimburse ourselves for,” said Evans, CEO of Project Community Connections Inc, a longstanding federally funded Atlanta non-profit that serves people coming out of homelessness. His organization has a couple of months in reserves that create a solvency risk if spent down. “I’ve got $180,000 in reimbursements for the first 15 days of this month. At this point, I’ve got to address staff now about, you know, what’s the plan.”
On Monday night, the White House instructed agencies to pause all federal grants while evaluating whether the programs met the ideological standards of the administration “including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal”, according to a memo issued by the office of management and budget.
Federal grants and loans represent about $3 of every 10 the federal government spends. The memo instructs agencies not to freeze funding that supports Medicaid, Medicare, social security and direct assistance to individuals.
Nonetheless, states like Georgia rely on federal funding to help cover transportation spending, primary and secondary education, and social services such as housing assistance. Almost all the funding to fight homelessness in Georgia is federal.
News broke of the Trump administration’s order to freeze federal grants while Evans and his staff were in vans looking for homeless people.
Monday was a long night for Evans. The city conducted its annual point in time count for homelessness on Monday night. Most of the staff of social service agencies around the city were on the street past midnight, surveying the unsheltered.
Evans got home at about 2am. He tried to sign into HUD’s grant disbursement system website, know as eLoccs, at 5am. – ahead of the anticipated rush on the news – only to receive the error message.
“We are out trying to ensure that unhoused people have an opportunity to receive services and get connected to services, and then we have to pivot in the morning to ensure the livelihood and stability of our organization. It’s quite daunting,” Evans said.
Like many cities, Atlanta has a shortage of affordable housing. It also has a shortage of property owners willing to offer housing at any price to people coming out of homelessness. A hot rental market means landlords can choose tenants who are less likely to be disruptive. The benefit service providers have been able to offer these landlords is stability: a rent check on time, every time.
The disruption undermines that promise to landlords, and to his clients, Evans said.
“I’m not paying February because I don’t know when I’m going to get my money back, right?” he said. “This is going to have a massive impact.”
State officials are still formulating a response. Some told the Guardian they were unaware that the freeze had landed.
“Trump vowed to be a dictator on day one,” said the congressman Hank Johnson, who represents a district near Atlanta. “By slashing federal funding passed by Congress – a plan right out of Project 2025 – this illegal plan threatens democracy, hurts farmers, raises grocery, and rent prices, makes college less affordable, and undermines disease-fighting efforts.”
