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Federal funding freeze reported to be rescinded as Berkshire leaders voice concern over residents ‘keeping the heat on’

The action may spark organizations to reach out to individual donors in order to lessen their reliance on government monies.

Berkshire County — Given the local fallout from the January 27 White House announcement to “pause” federal grants and loans to states and other entities, community nonprofit organizations are still scratching their heads to figure out a way to move forward should their financial assistance be threatened again.

Although that action was temporarily blocked until February 3, a coalition of attorneys general in 23 states, including Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit January 28 to stop the measure from being implemented as jeopardizing state programs involving health, childcare, education, disaster relief, infrastructure, and aid to victims of violence. See the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General news release here.

As of press time, the Associated Press reported that the White House rescinded the freeze order following confusion over its details.

For Berkshire Grown Executive Director Margaret Moulton, federal funds constitute a significant portion of the group’s budget that includes a three-year collaborative grant managed through the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission to help fund a mobile farmers’ market program that doubles as a food pantry. The grant is in its final year. “All of the things that make that program run are federal funds,” Moulton said.

The organization offers a sliding pay scale for patrons as well as other federal food-assistance programs. “There’s no questions asked,” Moulton said. “Everybody shops the same, and when you get to the cashier, you just point to what level you’re paying at on an iPad. So, it’s very stigma free and we worked hard to develop that atmosphere at the markets.”

The group has been the recipient of other state grants over the past couple of years, with those funds allocated to buy food from local farms at a rate of about $45,000 per month, she said. That food is then delivered to 41 different food pantries throughout the Berkshires, serving 14,000 residents each week, using a $750,000 grant, Moulton said. “Those funds are managed by the state of Massachusetts, but they’re actually federal funds,” she said, adding that the Commonwealth applies to the federal government to access those monies.

That $750,000 grant expires at the end of May, with another grant approved in December by the United States Department of Agriculture to be dispersed through the state’s Department of Agriculture, Moulton said. “It’s not only about feeding food insecure families, it’s supporting local farms,” she said. “For us, that’s our goal: supporting local farms.”

More grants fund the organization’s technical-assistance programs for farmers and farmer workshops such as tractor maintenance and networking.

Looking to the future, Moulton said her team is working to diversify their funding base to ensure the group isn’t completely dependent on government grants, instead building on major individual donations. “That’s something that we were already doing,” she said. “This [order] may push us to do even more of that. But, these government grants, you can’t touch them. $750,000 is a lot of money to try and replace.”

Construct Executive Director Jane Ralph and her team were sent scrambling on January 27 to understand the full impact of the earlier announcement from the White House. The nonprofit organization provides affordable housing and rental assistance to southern Berkshire County residents and essential workers.

Although the group receives monies directly from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for one property, funding for housing-stabilization and homelessness-prevention programs stems from either private donors or South Berkshire towns, Ralph stated in an email response to The Berkshire Edge.

However, 18 percent of Construct’s tenants are supported by project-based rental vouchers, with eight percent employing federal, or Section 8, vouchers administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), she stated. That program aims to help very-low-income families, seniors, and disabled individuals obtain housing in the private market if that home meets certain requirements and the owner agrees to rent under the program, with a portion of the rent paid to the landlord directly as a government subsidy.

Ralph explained that if this assistance is characterized as “rental assistance,” it wouldn’t be curtailed under the executive order. But, should it be classified as a “government grant,” it may be subject to a funding freeze, negatively impacting its tenants.

“We depend on the rent to maintain the apartments and grounds, pay for insurance, utilities, staff, and capital reserves,” Ralph stated. “Anytime rent isn’t paid, we have to rely on fundraising and government grants to make ends meet to continue to provide the much-needed affordable housing.”

The group launched its Warm Up the Winter campaign, including a March 6 dinner and benefit concert, before the now-rescinded freeze was put into place, Ralph stated. That program aims to raise $150,000 for emergency assistance: fuel, utilities, rent payments, and short-term accommodations for low-income residents. “For us to have a thriving community, we all need to have our basic needs met,” Ralph stated.

Deborah Leonczyk, executive director of the Berkshire Community Action Council (BCAC), said the nonprofit organization’s program that assists qualifying individuals with fuel, or heating, assistance is “entirely funded by the federal government.” Half of the funds for another of the group’s programs that provides warm clothing comes from federal monies, she said, as is the case with some of its food-security initiatives and energy-efficiency programs.

Those federal monies represent about 65 percent of the funds collected by BCAC, Leonczyk said. “We wouldn’t be devastated; the people of Berkshire County would be devastated who rely on us,” she said of a scenario in which those funds lapsed.

Over the past several years, the group has expanded its weatherization department that relies on private money from utility companies, protecting those efforts along with its energy-efficiency and heating-system-repair programs from any possible holds on federal funds in the future, Leonczyk said.

Should such a halt to those funds be prompted again, BCAC will not be the only Berkshire County nonprofit outlet seeking the help of individual donations from the same pool of prospective donors. “So, we’re all competing for the same donors,” Leonczyk said. “Somebody will [lose out].”

At least for this winter, BCAC clients can rest easy. According to Leonczyk, 90 percent of federal fuel assistance dollars have already been dispersed to the state and are “secure,” adding that there wasn’t a federal hold on fuel assistance. “I’m relatively confident that fuel assistance is safe for now, so we are going to continue to provide fuel assistance as always,” she said.

In an update to comments made to The Berkshire Edge on January 28, Berkshire County Head Start Executive Director Brett Random provided an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) document exempting Head Start from the freeze mandate. See the OMB document here. As of 2 p.m. on that date, however, she stated she was still waiting for the agency’s payment-management system that was shut down to be operable again and allow for disbursements.

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