Will County nonprofits ‘navigating’ Trump administration’s proposed freeze on funds

Michelle L. Pruim, executive director of NAMI Will-Grundy, doesn’t expect that President Donald Trump’s freeze on federal grants and loans will affect the organization, which provides education, support and advocacy for individuals and families affected by mental illness.

“It does not appear that any of our current funding comes from federal sources,” Pruim said. “So I think we’re in the clear in terms of direct financial impact.”

A federal judge ordered a hold in the funding pause by Trump’s administration, but that order is only in effect until Monday.

Other nonprofits in Will Country are greatly concerned.

Merridith Montgomery, executive director of Continuum of Care, said the Will, Kendall and Grundy counties region has been awarded more than $5.87 million from Continuum of Care program funding, which was allocated through a competitive grant process managed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

These grants, which fund “critical services like supportive housing and street outreach,” were executed through an agreement with the federal government and awarded to nine nonprofits in the region, Montgomery said.

Currently, “157 households are actively engaged in street outreach services, a critical intervention that helps connect people living in uninhabitable locations to lifesaving services,” she said.

Also, 365 individuals are participating in supportive housing programs through Continuum of Care funding, 41% of whom are disabled and 29% whose children are younger than age, Montgomery said.

So, a “freeze on these grants will immediately impact” people in Will, Kendall and Grundy counties, she said.

“If these funds are frozen, they risk losing housing and supportive services and face reexperiencing homelessness,” Montgomery said.

Moreover, the announcement of the FY24 CoC Competition has been stalled.

The FY24 CoC Competition “determines the renewal of these programs, which are reviewed annually for cost effectiveness and performance,” she said.

“We don’t know what will happen with this funding now,” Montgomery said.

“We’re all hoping for a quick resolution to this so we can all get back to work and focus on our mission.”

—  Sarah Oprzedek, president and CEO of United Way of Will County

Bad news for mental health services

Stepping Stones in Joliet provides mental health counseling along with treatment for substance abuse.

Executive Director Paul Lauridsen said Stepping Stones looked to its trade association – the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health – for information on the effect the proposed funding freeze might have on Stepping Stones.

“We do get a significant amount of federal funding, including grant and Medicaid funding,” Lauridsen said. “This could result in [a] major reduction or elimination of services.”

Information from the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health and its federal consulting team Guide Consulting said “the full list of targeted federal programs across multiple departments and subagencies is enormous.”

Programs that could be affected include the Children’s Mental Health Services program, the Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness program and the PATH Homeless program, according to the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health and Guide Consulting.

Targeted grants may include the National Institute of Mental Health’s mental health research grants and many of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s projects of “regional and national significance,” including the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and mental health response grants, according to the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health and Guide Consulting.

‘Navigating through the best we can’

Lisa Morel Las, executive director of the Will County Children’s Advocacy Center in Joliet, said the center has a $1.4 million budget, and “a significant amount of money comes from federal and state grants,” amounting to $800,060.

The Will County Children’s Advocacy Center is a “child-focused, coordinated response center that provides hope, healing and justice for children who have endured severe physical abuse, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect and exposure to violence,” according to its website.

Of that $800,060, about $420,000 comes directly from the federal government through the Victims of Crime Act, Morel Las said. The other 50% also comes from the federal government and is passed through state agencies to the center, she said.

At this point, Morel Las is not concerned.

“We’re pretty confident we’re OK for now,” she said. “Obviously we have other funding, so we’re just waiting it out.”

Morel Las said the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Illinois called an emergency meeting Wednesday.

“We’re going to have a little more direction from our state meeting,” she said. “But right now, we’re as much in the dark as anyone else.”

Ines Kutlesa, CEO of Guardian Angel Community Services in Joliet, which operates 24-hour hotlines for domestic and sexual abuse, among other programs, isn’t yet certain if or how the pause will affect Guardian Angel.

“We are navigating through the best we can in real time, along with all nonprofit agencies who received the same notice regarding the temporary pause on federal funding,” Kutlesa said.

Bob Taylor, CFO at Trinity Services in New Lenox, said it’s unknown if the pause will affect Trinity Services.

“However, in the interim, the HUD systems are currently down,” Taylor said Tuesday afternoon, referencing the eLOCCS, or Electronic Line of Credit Control System. “While we have taken action to prepare advances and up-to-the-minute draw requests, Trinity does not currently have viable system access.”

Taylor said Trinity Services was “in communication with HUD and other agencies on this.”

“The good news is that most grant programs are in advance and reconciled,” Taylor said. “So our normal payments have been flowing without the need for invoices.”

Sarah Oprzedek, president and CEO of United Way of Will County, said local nonprofits reported that federal grant systems were inaccessible for the day.

“I have heard of one partner that was successfully able to log in and access their funds today,” she said, “but only one so far.”

Oprzedek said United Way of Will County logs in to two different systems. Neither she nor the finance director were able to log in to their respective systems, she said.

“I kept getting ‘system maintenance warning’ as I tried to log in to the system,” Oprzedek said. “And I never was able to get through.”

Oprzedek said she contacted someone in IT for “advice and guidance” in case the issue was on United Way’s end.

But she said IT told her it’s likely that “so many organizations across the nation were trying to access these systems [that] they became overloaded and overwhelmed.”

Oprzedek said she also learned later in the day that some federal grant programs have technical assistant providers who can answer questions about the grants.

But these technical assistant providers “are no longer able to provide technical assistance to the grantees until the freeze is complete,” Oprzedek said.

‘In emergency mode’

Oprzedek said “news of the federal funding freeze caught many organizations by surprise.”

“And with the notice coming out late yesterday and having until today at 5 p.m. to be ready for the freeze to go into effect, there wasn’t a lot of time to prepare for this,” she said.

A vast number of grants are affected by the pause, including health and human services grants related to housing, domestic violence, educational programs, disability services, child care and legal services, Oprzedek said.

“We are still actively working with our partners to better understand the full magnitude of this situation,” she said. “But at this time, we have confirmed 75 grants with total grant awards of $18 million. As stated by one of our partners, we are in emergency mode at the moment.”

However, most of United Way’s community partners still are collecting information, and it’s just too early to fully understand the implications, Oprzedek said.

Nevertheless, two nonprofits are “taking a look” at reducing staffing, Oprzedek said.

The main concern is that the pause will “trickle down and affect the very people who need help,” she said.

“We’re all hoping for a quick resolution to this so we can all get back to work and focus on our mission,” Oprzedek said, “and do what we need to do to support the community.”