Two weeks after the Trump administration rescinded a memo that temporarily froze funding to nonprofits across the nation, Bloomington-based anti-poverty organization Beacon is still in a state of uncertainty.
“It's a super unpredictable time,” Executive Director Forrest Gilmore said. “There's not a huge window for dealing with these kinds of consequences or challenges. So, things can happen fast.”
The funding freeze, announced Jan. 27, ordered a total halt on federal grants, loans and other financial forms of assistance. The stated intention was to grant officials time to review programs for compliance with Trump’s policies and to prevent “the use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies.”
The memo caused widespread disruption to nonprofits and federally funded programs, and officials rescinded the directive two days later amid multiple legal challenges.
During those two days, Beacon lost access to the federal funding that sustains its Rapid Re-housing program, which provides short-term financial assistance and case management to house individuals experiencing homelessness. It also couldn’t access those funds for its Housing First initiative, which provides similar support to individuals experiencing prolonged homelessness due to a disability.
In 2023, Beacon received a total of $2,085,460 in government grants.
“No one knew whether we'd ever be funded again,” Gilmore said. “It happened without notice, and there was no timeline for returning.”
Beacon provides rent for hundreds of clients each month, which federal reimbursement through its funding portal almost entirely funds. The freeze caused that funding portal to suddenly shut down.
“We heard about it on the news,” Gilmore said. “And then the next day when we were in work, we checked the funding portal, and the funding portal had been closed, actually many hours ahead of the deadline to close.”
The pause was intended to set in at 5 p.m. on Jan. 28. Gilmore said it was unclear if expenditures, including money spent on supportive services and rental assistance would be repaid.
That uncertainty disrupted Beacon’s plans to provide housing for an individual with multiple amputations who had been left homeless after leaving a nursing home.
“We suddenly had to pause that housing opportunity, because we didn't know if we could house him without potentially, you know, failing to pay the rent,” Gilmore said.
Beacon's funding returned several days later, Gilmore said, allowing the program to continue housing that person.
Other nonprofits across the country have remained unable to access federal funding. Some organizations have had to rapidly adapt, often by pausing programs or cutting staff.
Multiple nonprofits in Monroe County are concerned about future disruptions, according to Marcus Whited, program director for the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County.
The South Central Community Action Program, an anti-poverty nonprofit that operates in south central Indiana, runs its Head Start program with funding from the Administration for Children and Families within the Department of Health and Human Services .
Shortly after the freeze, officials instructed the SCCAP and other grant recipients to strip ACF and HHS logos from their websites and add a disclaimer to “clarify the nature of the content and its alignment.”
Those instructions came as nonprofits faced increased scrutiny for initiatives that don’t align with the Trump administration’s stances on diversity.
SCCAP Executive Director Eddy Riou said organizers have lost trust in the stability of federal assistance.
“The fear of arbitrarily being cut off from funding is something that we have to worry about daily now,” Riou said.
Gilmore said he's concerned Beacon could see continued funding disruptions. A permanent funding freeze could shut down the Rapid Rehousing and Housing First programs.
“Losing those federal grants would basically eliminate almost all of our housing work,” Gilmore said.
The consequences of disrupted funding would fall on Beacon’s clients.
“Just a couple of months can prevent us from, say, being able to pay somebody's rent,” Gilmore said. “A lot of damage can be done, even with a delay, because you can't really undo an eviction.”
Danielle Sorden, director of Beacon’s Housing First Programs, said she’s never experienced anything like these disruptions in the 12 years she’s worked in her position.
“If they stop our funding, all those people are out of a home, and we're all out of jobs,” she said. “There's nothing else we can do.”
Beacon’s Housing First programs provide housing for individuals whose physical or mental health prevents them from maintaining housing without continued financial support and case management. That includes clients with disabilities, chronic health problems or high-risk conditions.
Sorden said Beacon has housed people who had nowhere to go after they were released from the hospital for open heart surgery. She has other clients who use wheelchairs or require ongoing medical treatments like dialysis.
“It's terrifying, absolutely terrifying,” Sorden said. “These are people that will probably be homeless for the rest of their short lives if they are kicked off this program.”
For more vulnerable individuals, Sorden said uncertainty around Beacon’s future is a matter of life or death.
“A lot of times, the only reason people have stayed alive is because of the housing that we've given them and the case management that we've given them,” Sorden said. “So this is like a death sentence for our clients.”
