If President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans had gone into effect, or if the Trump administration cuts federal funding that was targeted with the freeze, then 286 men, women and children currently helped by Aurora’s Hesed House would immediately be back on the streets experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
That’s what Hesed House Executive Director Joe Jackson told a group of around 20 representatives from local civic organizations, governments and others who met Friday at the Aurora Public Library’s West Branch to share their concerns with U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, about things the Trump administration has done or said it might do, and how those impact their respective organizations.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has signed a number of executive orders touching a variety of issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The president’s Office of Management and Budget also put out a memo that froze all federal grants and loans until they could be reviewed to see if they aligned with the president’s executive orders, but after the freeze was challenged in court and paused by a federal judge, the memo was rescinded.
For Hesed House, possible federal funding cuts would not only take away funds needed to keep those 286 people from unsheltered homelessness, but also funds used to help staff the organization’s homeless shelter, according to Jackson. Because of this, the shelter would have to cut roughly 100 beds, he said.
That’s over a third of the newly-expanded shelter‘s 280 beds, and Jackson said the shelter is already reaching capacity.
Any cuts to its federal funding would also force the nonprofit organization to pause or scrap a supportive housing project and would put at risk homeless prevention programs that last year helped to prevent around 650 households from needing to come to Hesed House, among other impacts, Jackson said.
Although the Association for Individual Development, or AID, did not have a representative at the meeting, Jackson said that the organization relies on Medicaid for pretty much all of its mental health services, that Medicaid is a primary form of health care for most of the people Hesed House serves, and that Hesed House “would not exist” without those mental health services.
Two Rivers Head Start, a federally-funded early childhood education organization based in Aurora, was preparing to lay off 75 or more of its employees because of the federal funding freeze, Ruth Vargas said. Eventually, the organization was given guidance that it would not be impacted, but many families are still scared to bring their children to Head Start because they are refugees or immigrants, she said.
The organization is just uncertain about what the future may hold, since whatever impacts them will impact the entire community, Vargas said. According to Mayra Sandoval, who also attended the meeting to represent Two Rivers Head Start, the organization has emergency rental and utility assistance programs, a food pantry, scholarships and more in addition to its early childhood education programs.
Kara Murphy of the DuPage Health Coalition said many of the families that the organization serves won’t go to the doctor, to school, to church or to them after the Trump administration threw out some guidelines limiting where immigration-related arrests could take place. This will likely compromise people’s health and safety, especially if people ignore health concerns, she said.
Aurora University is also seeing a similar trend, according to Senior Vice President Meg Howes. She said some students are not coming to campus, and many students and their families are afraid.
The impact really will be on the Aurora community, she said, since the university graduates many nurses, teachers and social workers that stay right here, Howes said.
Also, if the federal government stops giving Pell Grants, it will “demolish our program” since many students rely on those grants, she said.
“There’s just a real fragility to our ability to manage the programs, keep them in school and keep them safe,” Howes said. “Our students are really feeling that they’re not cared for by the greater structure and are at great risk.”
Waubonsee Community College is also seeing a drop in student attendance, especially at its downtown Aurora location, according to Interim Vice President of Finance and Administration Josh Bryant.
Another concern of the college is that it has the equivalent of about 15 full-time positions funded by federal grants, and although those grants primarily focus on tutoring and career counseling to low-income students, many of have some diversity, equity or inclusion element to them, he said.
Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, also called DEI, have been a target of the Trump administration since the president took office. Bryant said the college is worried about how the federal government will define DEI, and how that definition will impact the grants currently funding those 15 positions.
The college also has other federal funding that goes directly to help students in the form of refunds to help them pay for transportation, housing and more, he said.
Staff members from the cities of Batavia and Geneva said they get millions of dollars of federal funding for infrastructure projects like roads and the replacement of lead water pipes.
A number of Kane County departments would also be impacted by any cuts to federal funding, including departments in charge of health, water resources and transpiration, among others, according to Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog.
She said Kane County is also not allowed to be a part of the World Health Organization, which is restricting the flow of health data.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
