Stakeholders Talk Affordable Housing in an Uncertain Time

A pause on federal grants and loans described in a federal Management and Budget Office memo issued Monday sent local government agencies and nonprofits panicking to determine the full impact of the funding freeze. A federal judge blocked the order late Tuesday. Then, Wednesday, the administration rescinded the memo.

Muddying the waters, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on the social media website X — formerly Twitter — Wednesday afternoon that pulling the memo “is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze.” “It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo. Why? To end any confusion created by the court’s injunction,” she wrote, adding that President Donald Trump’s executive orders regarding federal funding “remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”

Uncertainty and anxiety over the state of federal funding came up several times in a conference room at the Buccaneer Resort Wednesday during a “Housing Our Community” workshop and networking event hosted by the nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners. Asked to describe the largest barriers to affordable housing development in the territory, a handful of officials, developers, bankers, and advocates overwhelmingly said “funding.”