St. Louis Department of Health warns federal funding cuts could ‘devastate’ local programs; seeks corrections and targeted support for FY26

Dr. Matty Hlachwarya Davis, director of the St. Louis City Department of Health, told the Budget and Public Employees Committee on May 14 that the department already faces several confirmed federal grant terminations and that further cuts at the national level would deeply affect core public-health services and community partners.

Davis said the department is “55% federally funded” and that multiple funding streams are either already cut or at risk. She listed confirmed and proposed reductions including a terminated grant of $2,214,272 (07/2014 funding terminated by the federal government, notice dated March 24, 2025), $757,191 (grant ending 06/30/2025 and not being renewed), and other potential losses across HRSA, HUD/HOPWA and HIV/Ending the HIV Epidemic programs that support prevention, housing and treatment services.

“We are 55% federally funded,” Davis said in the committee hearing and asked the council to consider the human consequences if those streams were removed: “While it’s easy to see 1 word that represents an illness… the reason I chose infectious diseases as my subspecialty as a physician is because… they do not care your race, your gender… If we continue to… assault public health, it will come to all of our homes.”

Davis summarized three immediate priorities for…