Since January 27, 2025, thousands of non-profit organizations around the country, including Intermountain Fair Housing Council, Inc., who provide essential housing advocacy and support services to the most vulnerable people in our communities have had their grant payments frozen for already awarded federal grant funds and future awards.
Late on Monday, January 27, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memo directing most federal agencies to temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance.
On Tuesday, January 28, 2025, the funding freeze was stayed by a federal court judge, and on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, OMB rescinded the memo.
While the OMB rescinded the memo on January 29, 2025, the White House press secretary wrote on social media the same day that the OMB’s action was “NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” but “a rescission of the OMB memo,” and the Trump administration’s executive orders “on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented.”
While our funding portals have been opened, the funding has not been released to pay us for the work performed under our federal contracts.
IFHC’s services are free to the public because of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funding. The Intermountain Fair Housing Council (IFHC) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure open and inclusive housing for all persons. The IFHC attempts to eradicate discrimination through eviction prevention and education on fair housing laws, housing information and referral, housing counseling, and assistance with mediating and or filing fair housing complaints, among other things. The IFHC also provides education and outreach on fair housing laws and practices to housing providers and others.
IFHC assists thousands of people each year to find solutions to housing issues re: discrimination, instability, inaccessibility, unaffordability and unsafe or unhealthy conditions.
Most people we serve are elderly, have disabilities, are on a fixed income, and/or living in poverty. Annually we respond to and assist:
- Between 2000 & 3000 intake callers and visitors needing help with housing crises,
- With advocacy for more than 800 households with fair housing barriers,
- With over 66 reasonable accommodation and modification requests for people with disabilities in 2024, and
- With education to over 200,000 Idahoans a year.
IFHC has unpaid expenditures of $260,000 for activities already conducted under HUD grants, pre-paid out of our own operating expenses pursuant to signed agreements for HUD reimbursement. This is about three months of salaries, taxes, and benefits (e.g., health insurance) for 10 full-time employees. This freeze on grant funds already earned threatens IFHC’s ability to serve our community and our existence.
For over three decades, IFHC has been awarded competitive performance-based HUD grants to fund our work across the entire State of Idaho regardless of political party in the White House. Currently, IFHC has HUD grant applications pending which are essential to continuation of our activities after our current grants end on June 30, 2025. Without continued federal support, IFHC will be unable to assist thousands of people who seek our help accessing and retaining shelter, housing, and homeownership.
Please, consider reaching out to Idaho Congressmen and Senators to help Idahoans by asking them to release our payments and make future payments for work performed and review pending grant applications needed to continue essential work to prevent evictions and address housing discrimination to give Idahoans just access to housing during an affordable housing crisis:
Senator Risch 202-224-2752 or email at E-mail – James E Risch, U.S. Senator for Idaho;
Senator Crapo at 202-224-6142 or email at Email Me | U.S. Senator Mike Crapo;
Congressman Simpson at 202-225-5531 or email at Contact | U.S. Congressman Mike Simpson – 2nd District of Idaho;
Congressman Fulcher at 202-225-6611 or email at Email Me | Congressman Russ Fulcher.
Thank you for your support and making a one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation to help sustain our work for Idahoans: https://ifhcidaho.org/donations/donate-help-fight-discrimination/ .
For more information, contact:
Zoe Olson, Executive Director, 208-383-0695 zolson@ifhcidaho.org