HUD funding delays threaten rent assistance for Salem domestic violence survivors

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Millions in promised federal money destined for Salem nonprofits to keep domestic violence survivors from becoming homeless and coordinate shelters and services is weeks overdue, prompting concerns from local providers about the future of federal support for homeless services.

Federal contracts that have come through in recent months also contain new language suggesting agencies could lose funding if they promote services for or acknowledge transgender and intersex people, according to Jimmy Jones, executive director for the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, which oversees much of the region’s sheltering efforts. 

“There are some real disturbing and chilling connotations about all of this,” Jones said. 

Salem-area homeless service providers are still waiting on $4 million of overdue funding to help survivors actively fleeing domestic violence, homeless youth and to coordinate shelters.

Some of that money, $1.1 million, was promised to the Center for Hope & Safety to help domestic violence survivors get back on their feet by paying for up to 24 months of rent.

“It is critical and life-changing support for survivors of domestic violence,” said Ashley Carson Cottingham, the center’s executive director.

The Marion-Polk region was promised over $4 million in renewed grants which were due to be distributed in March for the first of a two-year contract, said Jeremy Gordon, Polk County commissioner and chair of the Mid-Willamette Valley Homeless Alliance, a regional government body that coordinates money for homeless services.

After sending award letters in January, Gordon said HUD missed its deadline to send the money within 45 days.

Some groups, like Church at the Park, are still waiting on anticipated letters to confirm their grants will be renewed, Gordon said. 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development, or HUD, is seeing sweeping cuts under the Trump administration. The administration has put the HUD headquarters in Washington D.C. up for sale and has moved to slash thousands of positions nationwide.

A link on the HUD Exchange website announcing the awards went down last week, and has not been restored as of Tuesday.

Gordon said he was told by HUD on Monday that the delay is a result of administrative issues. The agency did not answer questions from Salem Reporter about the delayed funds, new requirements about gender or the broken online link.

Gordon said that he hopes that HUD’s claim of administrative delays is true, but nationwide trends have him concerned that the delay in grant distribution may still turn into a cancellation. The administration has moved to rapidly shift federal policy and cancel or delay funds for numerous federal programs since President Donald Trump took office in January.

“It has our provider community very stressed, especially given the cuts to our food systems and potential cuts to head start and other programs that serve people in poverty,” Gordon said.

Carson Cottingham said they’re working to figure out what will happen if the funds don’t come through.

In short, it will make families who survived domestic violence and sexual assault homeless.

“We simply won’t have all the funds necessary to be able to help people secure safe and stable housing,” Carson Cottingham said.

She said it may mean going back to a one-time assistance model, where they help someone with part of the deposit on a new apartment but can’t fiscally support them much further beyond that.

“It just feels heartbreaking to think we might not be able to provide that same level of support. It really is life-changing, these HUD funds, and we see great success when we’re able to get people into the rapid re-housing program,” she said. “They’re able to find stability in their lives and just change the whole trajectory for themselves and their children from violence.”

New language 

Providers are also concerned that future federal money may come with new strings attached, and a change in the longtime federal practice of prioritizing housing over other forms of care. That housing-first model ensures someone has a stable environment to better accept addiction treatment, health care and other kinds of support.

The homeless alliance recently received $36,000 from HUD for its system which pairs people with services, the fulfillment of a grant delayed from last year. The document, reviewed by Salem Reporter, included new contract language requiring that providers don’t use the funds to “promote” “gender ideology,” elective abortions or support undocumented immigrants. 

Jones said that the new contracts are sending a chilling message: that the federal agency will no longer enforce the proven effective practices like the housing-first model which gives someone shelter before treatment. According to a 2023 HUD article evaluating multiple studies, that approach helps “increase housing stability and decrease rates of homelessness.”

“That contract template is a massive, massive big deal because it basically changes the direction of the entire work, and gives local officials the ability to allow some of the bad practices of the past, like religious discrimination or the expectation that people work,” Jones said. “The (contracts) really undermine all the progress we’ve made for the past 20 years.”

A major point of concern, for Jones, is the ban on promoting ”gender ideology,” as defined in Trump’s executive order, issued January 20.

The order, which is being challenged in federal court, defines “gender ideology” as the belief that someone can be transgender, or somewhere else on the spectrum of genders. The order also only includes male and female sexes, despite 1-2% of the population being intersex, meaning they are born with genitals, chromosomes or reproductive organs outside that binary.

Since the contract doesn’t define what it means to “promote” gender ideology, Jones said it leaves the door wide open to pull funding for any agency supporting LGBTQ+ issues, even if they don’t use the federal money to do it. Jones said it might mean they can’t market housing opportunities directly to LGBTQ+ people, who are disproportionately likely to be homeless, or host group therapy for LGBTQ+ youth, who see high rates of homelessness.

“People in Oregon really want to believe that there are safeguards around this (federal level) effort,” Jones said. “I am less confident that those safeguards are as strong as they believe.”

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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