City told federal appropriations and HUD changes may cut housing and community grants; CoC and CDBG face uncertainty

City officials and the city's federal lobbyist briefed the council on emerging federal appropriations activity and potential impacts for local housing and community programs. Brian, a representative of Desmo Consulting Group who described work on federal appropriations, told the meeting that Congress moved to a continuing resolution for FY25 and is beginning FY26 appropriations markup. He said the House bill contains reductions to programs such as CDBG and HOME, while the Senate is likely to be more favorable. He summarized: “we did end up with a continuing resolution for all of FY '25, which carried over the FY '24 funding levels.” City staff and partners told the council that two grant processes important to local housing and workforce efforts were disrupted: the TechEd hub process appears to be re‑competed (the city intends to reapply), and an EPA Community Change grant was among a number of EPA awards canceled nationwide. Dawn (city staff) said the biggest local impact would be a roughly 50 percent reduction in CoC youth housing grant funding (YHGP) and about a $500,000 reduction in CDBG under the House proposal; staff warned that a CoC restructure under consideration could change the interventions allowed in the CoC portfolio and potentially make previously renewable awards nonrenewable. Staff emphasized uncertainty: application notices and recompetition schedules were not yet clear and some programs that were anticipated to be consolidated (e.g., Home, ESG, CVG) did not appear to be combined in the initial markup. The city intends to stay engaged with university partners around TechEd hub applications; staff reported recent meetings with Gonzaga, WSU and Eastern and said enrollment and research funding pressures at universities could affect local research campus viability and workforce programs. Why it matters: reductions to CoC, HOME and CDBG funding can reduce permanent supportive housing capacity, HMIS data system support and other core homeless services the city funds. Staff said CoC funds have been largely renewable for many projects and that making those funds nonrenewable would create a funding cliff with no obvious local backfill. City staff and the federal lobbyist said they will monitor the appropriations process and return with a longer briefing; departments affected by possible reductions were advised to prepare for competition and to consider contingency plans.