Whether or not Trump eventually does go through with his threat to impose a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, or will delay again, will be seen on April 2. In the meantime, what impact has the first weeks of the second Trump Administration had on Washtenaw County?
The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency are proving to be a constant barrage of presidential executive orders (EO) that confuse and alarm liberals, lawyers and even many of Trump’s own voters.
Inauguration day executive orders
Trump signed dozens upon dozens of EOs on two separate live television events on inauguration day – one at a stadium a few blocks south of the Capitol in front of a roaring crowd, followed by more at the White House. One of these was a memo, not an EO. The Office of Management and Budget, a White House office in charge of overseeing the implementation of government directives, issued a initial memo that caused the alarm and confusion. The memo appeared to halt financial grants passed by Congress to support charities. It was rescinded after a backlash two days later, but with many EOs still in litigation, the uncertainty is far from over.
“Our phones blew up” when the memo went out, Barbara Cecil, the Development Director of SOS Community Services, Ypsilanti’s main homelessness prevention and support non-profit, said.
Funding shelters
The White House blamed the media and courts for the alarm, but questions remain about how and if funds intended for shelter are going to keep going out. ProPublica and others have reported that nonprofits across the country have been receiving government notices along with their restarted payments, drawing doubt on the continuation of funding. The case remains ongoing as a federal judge in DC, the Honorable Loren Alikhan, ruled on February 25 that the administration still hasn’t followed court orders to release the funds, as ordered by another court ruling on February 3. The OMB has since submitted a filing claiming that they are in fact in compliance.
Congress disperses billions of dollars in grant money to a patchwork of homeless shelters, food distribution charities and other human service non-profits every year – whether the district is Republican or Democratic, whether DC is in liberal or conservative hands. Until this year.
Back in January, SOS suddenly found themselves locked out of the eLOCCs system that the federal Department of Urban Development (HUD) uses to fund rapid rehousing – a term meant to get someone who sleeping in a tent, a car or even just on the sidewalk – into some sort of shelter – a motel room, shelter bed or Section 8 housing. By being shut out, the SOS House said in a press release that they were suddenly had no way of accessing the account through which they were funding $100,000 or so to keep 123 adults and 241 children out of homelessness just in Ypsi. Medicaid, SNAP (food stamps) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding was also temporarily blocked. Some agencies continue to have trouble accessing the funds they should have, according to the Economist, a economic and foreign policy focused magazine.
“We value this country, we value the tremendous freedom and opportunity it provides to us and to our children, so we feel great relief that the U.S. has a chance to continue on instead of going bankrupt and being sold out to our enemies. We conservatives are joyfully amazed to see such a large ship as the U.S. government turning back toward friendly waters in so short a time,” the Washtenaw County Republican Party said in an interview conducted over email.
Furthermore, the new administration is cutting federal staff left and right – from the FAA, to USAID – and with recent news that HUD brings back fears of a repeat of the funding freeze.
“Again, we are not happy that people suffer hardship and loss,” Washtenaw Republicans wrote in response to the funding freeze fight’s effect on local social work non-profits. “The question we should ask is, “What can we do to help our neighbors?” Nonprofits, like the ones with which you spoke, need to make sure they are making the best use of the funds they are receiving. Philanthropists, small and large, need to be sure their dollars are working toward their goals in the best ways possible. Any nonprofit that is solely, or mostly, dependent on federal and/or state funding should reevaluate their model and see if there is a better way of operating. Many conservatives are philanthropically minded and support organizations like ones you’ve mentioned.”
This ongoing episode has created a lot of uncertainty for operations like the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. They operate the Robert J. Delonis Center – the main homeless shelter for Washtenaw County, a four story building standing on the northern side of Huron Street, in the shadow of the raised train track that forms the western edge of downtown Ann Arbor.
It is run by Executive Director Daniel Kelly, who operates at the forefront of Ann Arbor’s fight against homelessness in the face of the ongoing housing crisis. So far this year, they have served 1,108 people – including 869 people at their warming center and through finding permanent housing for 288 people according to SAWC numbers – but the system is under strain. Kelly keeps having to come up with new ideas to keep up as February is already his busiest time of year. The SAWC has been dealing with a 15 percent increase in need in February 2025 compared to February 2024.
“We’re just really focused on that, and thankfully we haven’t seen an impact to our operations,” Kelly said. “At the federal level there’s a lot of unknowns and I think for me I‘m just connecting with our local partners and the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, and federal partners.”
Cutting staff
And it is not just charities. The Department of Veterans Affairs cut of what it called 1,000 non-essential workers, which has included staff from the VA Hospital on Fuller Road. At least one employee has since been hired back, according to CBS News.
When asked about Ann Arbor’s VA Hospital, the Washtenaw GOP said, “Generally, probationary positions and DEI hires have been eliminated. Where there was overreach of those targets, for example in the VA, staff were reinstated by mid-February. We value good character and hard work, so any hiring decisions that are based on race, ethnicity, and sexual preference are inherently racist and sexist. Conservatives stand against racism and sexism. We want people to be hired based on merit.”
Local political options are limited. These local entities are non-profits, not governmental organizations. No city government has the capital, facilities, or staff to purchase any of them, let alone replace them.
“Ann Arbor as a municipal organization doesn’t have the resources or infrastructure to provide direct human services. That’s primarily a county function. The county provides some direct human services on its own, but both of us support non-profit organizations that exist in our community for the purpose of supporting folks in need. If those organizations went away, that would be extremely disruptive of course to the folks who need it, and we would do what we could to support,” Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor said.
While he doesn’t’ have exact numbers on how many of his constituents could be hurt by this, Taylor added “a withdrawal of the federal government on all matter of local government initiatives will be substantial and broad based. It will not be limited to those in immediate need. We will all suffer.”
Ypsilanti’s mayor did not respond to multiple interview requests for this article.
Why the constitutionality of Trump and Musk’s strategy matters
Trump took a great deal of time denying any knowledge of the Project 2025 playbook for the first half year of his second term while he was running against former Vice-President Kamala Harris, despite the fact that a large number of its authors worked for him during his first term. The OMB was run by Russel Voight in the first and now second Trump administrations, and he wrote quite a lot of it himself.
Other EOs include things objectively within Trump’s power as president, such as withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. However, some actions, like attempting to end birthright citizenship, have been widely criticized as unconstitutional.
This is part of the shock and awe efforts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to root out fraud and waste from federal programs in the name of quashing what MAGA supporerts calls “the deep state”. But DOGE itself is a misnomer in that the official sounding agency does not actually exist as no department was ever created by Congress, and the name is in fact a reference to a meme coin.
DOGE has been firing federal employees on a wide sweeping basis, and HUD employees are in their crosshairs, with HUD’s own DOGE task force aiming to eliminate up to 75% of the departments’ staff, according to NPR.
Democrats have strongly criticized DOGE and its leader, Elon Musk. The richest man in the world is not a federal employee and has never gotten a security clearance, yet he keeps showing up at federal agency after federal agency and unilaterally declaring huge changes with no authority to do so other than Trump’s say so.
Musk claimed that at the end of February, the Social Security Administration was rife with fraudulent payments. But that is at odds with a July 2024 inspector general’s report which found that Social Security Administration (SSA) “issues over $1 trillion in benefit payments annually. Even the slightest error in the overall payment process can result in billions of dollars in improper payments. For example, from [fiscal years] 2015 through 2022, SSA paid almost $8.6 trillion in benefits and made approximately $71.8 billion (0.84 percent) in improper payments, most of which were overpayments.”
The Trump Administration fired 17 inspectors generals is the last month. Some are suing, attempting to be reinstated.
The Washtenaw GOP said, “The accusation is a soundbite, without any truth to back it up, meant to produce an emotional reaction, typically anger. … Psychologists call that projection.”
The Constitution of the United States says in Article 1, Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States,” meaning Congress has the power to raise taxes and spend money. House Speaker Johnson Mike Johnson (R – Louisiana) said that he is supportive of the moves Trump is making despite this, as are the other Republican elected officials. Trump is appealing – another federal judge extended her blocking of the order.
“I don’t think this was anticipated at all,” Cecil said when asked how the current situation compares to her pre-election expectations. “I don’t think anybody forecast such a sudden interruption in the flow of contracts that were already awarded, and that we were already implementing without any hiccups.”
The debate over funding is ongoing and is likely to reach the Supreme Court of the United States. Trump nominated half of the six justices who make up a conservative supermajority over the three liberals. The SCOTUS has sided with Trump on many occasions, but by no means all, since 2015. Most notably, the SCOTUS rejected Trump’s attempts to remain in office after losing to Biden in the 2020 election on the basis that for all of the rhetoric Trump and his stories made out of alleging a stolen election, they never presented hard evidence that Biden had cheated in court. The January 6 insurrection against the capitol happened after Trump lost 63 out of 64 court cases.
“If the Trump Administration goes forward with a federal grants freeze, it will be devastating for Washtenaw County’s homeless response system, which includes a continuum of housing and services from eviction prevention assistance, homeless street outreach, emergency shelter and permanent housing and supports. We are already operating a homeless response system that has limited resources that cannot meet every need for shelter or housing; this will just further damage a scarcely resourced system of care and jeopardize the lives of our county’s most vulnerable individuals and families,” Amanda Carlisle, the executive director of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance said in an emailed interview.
If Trump does succeed in taking the power of the purse from Congress, Carlisle predicts: “There will be a ripple of devastating effects of the federal funding freeze goes through. Lack of shelter and housing resources will cause unsheltered homelessness; the issue will be more visible because we will have more people living on the streets. Agencies will be forced to close programs and agencies will have to cut staff positions, which will increase caseloads and eliminate life-saving services that help people maintain housing. Not only will this impact those being served by the homeless response system, but it will also impact the non-profit staff who will lose their jobs, their incomes, and their households may become housing insecure as a result. If people lose their jobs, there will be more ripples in the community. Lastly, some of the federal homelessness assistance our community receives goes to third-party landlords in the community who rent to people who have experienced homelessness and who are now housed.”
The potential impact
“I am pretty determined to continue to be a source of help and support for our community as we have always been for the last 55 years. We are looking forward to continuing to support our families,” Cecil said.
Charities are not necessarily all dependent on federal grants. Smaller charities like the Saline Area Social Service, a food charity serving southern Washtenaw County, raise much of their own money.
But as SAS Executive Director Jamail Aikens, pointed out in an email: “That action does not directly affect us because we are not the beneficiary of any federal funding, directly. It may impact us through Food Gatherers, who provides a lot of the food in the Washtenaw region for food pantries.”
Food Gatherer’s is indeed the vital nerve center of how Washtenaw County’s civil society works with municipalities and religious institutions keep the poorest people from starving amongst one of the wealthier communities in the state. They have $17,647,675 in total assets according to their latest audited financial statement – but that is not a lot to serve a county of 372,258 people, where the Census estimates 15.3 percent of people live below the poverty line – most of their assets include their north Ann Arbor building, vehicles and food.
RELATED: Meet Food Gatherers Executive Director: Eileen Spring
Only $4,827,825 of Food Gatherer’s assets consisted of cash on hand as of the end of last June. $2,153,194 of their $22,371,642 came from government and non-governmental grants, but it is not clear how much of that came from the government.
“I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I think it needs to be stated that we could lose agencies or see agencies have to drastically scale back their services if ‘the worst happens.’ I am confident Food Gatherers is a well-operated, longstanding non-profit in our community that has a large donor base, but government federal funding is critical to their operations, as it is for most of our non-profit partners. Losing an entity like Food Gatherers would have so many detrimental and devastating effects; Food Gatherers is able to bring resources to scale cost effectively and efficiently,” Carlisle said when asked what a worst case scenario for Food Gatherers would look like. “We have other agencies that rely on their partnership, support, and food assistance to provide food to their low-income clients. We have shelter and housing agencies who rely on Food Gatherers to meet the food-related needs of their clients, including the Community Kitchen at the Delonis Center which is entirely supported and operated by Food Gatherers. Even the University of Michigan’s food pantry is supplied by Food Gatherers.”
Over half of the revenue that the SOS shelter runs on – $3,104,214 of their $5,359,948 budget – comes through government grants. Nearly half of the funding for Washtenaw County’s main homeless shelter and related programs – $1,973,550 out of last year’s $4,343,211 budget, according to an unaudited statement from the Washtenaw Shelter Associate treasurer last year – came from government grant money.
Not all of the government grants come from the federal government, but a lot of them do. The SOS Shelter got $2,691,026 directly from HUD. The other $1,750,421 came indirectly from the HUD via state and county grants, according to Cecil.
“We have heard Trump often laud the veterans who sacrificed for our country. … He is a voice for those who died. He has a history of being generous to those in need, and he is trying to save this country so that all Americans can succeed. I am convinced by his past actions that he would do all he can to support veterans. More practically, if a great many people are affected by these cuts, as the narrative suggests, those Vets and/or their families need to lobby their representatives and senators for targeted funding bills that would safeguard VA healthcare. They can, for instance, push for ring-fencing healthcare funds. Polls seem to suggest that 80%+ of Americans favor strong VA services, so this should be very doable. Additionally, nonprofits, like the Wounded Warrior Project, could pivot to direct hospital support,” the Washtenaw County GOP told Current.
They added that they “don’t believe President Trump wants to see our Veterans harmed, or have their quality of life reduced. He is pushing our federal services to learn to operate efficiently so that each taxpayer dollar is more impactful. As it stands today, there is too much ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ of the taxpayer’s dollars. Regarding ‘nonprofits helping the poorest’, I mentioned above that they need to seriously look into diversifying their funding streams. They should also build coalitions by partnering with faith-based organizations, local businesses, and individual donors to pool resources. Economies of scale will help fewer organizations reach many more people. City councils can also redirect small grants; a $100,000 local investment can keep a shelter open.”
The previous Trump Administration lost in court all of the time, including at the Supreme Court. The role of the judicial branch is to stop illegal or unconstitutional executive actions from happening, but the Trump Administration is taking a much more defiant tone, denying that the courts have this constitutional power with nearly two and a half centuries of judicial precedent.
Vice-President J.D. Vance tweeted on February 9 “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
But that flies in the face of long established constitutional precedent, which does provide a check and balance to executive authority under the Constitution.
What to do if you need these services
Uncertainty rules the day right now, but it is important to remember that the people already in these services aren’t going anywhere yet.
You can also take full advantage of the Shelter Association’s website, Facebook and Instagram updates; Food Gatherer’s website and Twitter handle; SOS House’s website and Facebook page,. Other charities include the website and Facebook page for Faith in Action in Chelsea and Dexter or Jewish Family Services.
“We have a reserve that we can use to continue our program as normal during funding gaps. And we have our finance committee getting the ball rolling to find a contingency plan for funding gaps and seeing how far we can take things if the funding was cut off again,” says Cecil. When asked how long they could last without grant funding, Cecil reiterated the finance committee’s efforts, “but realistically we have services for 100 families, with minor children, every year, and that takes federal funding to do. There are already over 100 families that are homeless [in Ypsi] …” Without funding “that would increase the tent camps beyond what already has been. Homelessness is up in our community, and around the country, so we absolutely need continued federal funding in our community, as does every community, to deal with the housing crisis that this country is experiencing. We need cooperation from all levels of government, to ensure that every child has a place to call home, and I believe in my heart that all Americans want that to be a priority.”
The battle over whether or not Trump can or cannot take up the power of the legislative branch is certain to end up before the Supreme Court. What happens there will set the groundwork for how much money will or won’t be going to homelessness prevention and anti-hunger efforts across the whole country, never mind Washtenaw County. It will also tell us if the executive branch is superior to the judiciary and 535 members of the federal legislature now, or if the checks and balances that have been fundamental to America’s success as being a true representative democracy with a functional rule of law will or will not survive.
How to help
When asked how middle class and affluent Ann Arborites can help poorer Ann Arborites who are most affected by this potential freeze, Taylor said, “I would engage in political action in an effort to convince Republicans in the State Legislature, Republicans in the federal government to reverse course. These groups, and those [who] are supporting them, are taking conscious and intentional steps to dismantle the role of the federal government in civil life. That has real and painful consequences for millions of Americans – millions in Michigan, thousands in Ann Arbor. The degradation of civil society that will result will hurt our country and our community for years, perhaps decades. If people are interested, that is where they should direct their action. If they want to support organizations that provide human services, they should support those organization directly and enthusiastically.”
Kelly asked for donations – cash, food or clothing – to the Shelter Association or to other charities. Cecil also asked for the same, and for more volunteers, and for people to advocate where and whenever possible.
Carlisle was asked the same question that Taylor was. Her response: “Advocate, advocate, advocate. There has never been a more urgent time to reach out – via phone, email – with your Congressional representatives and Senators and let them know you are concerned about a potential freeze on federal grants and what that could mean for our most vulnerable unhoused and housing insecure community members, and the agencies that support them in our community. We are particularly concerned that the current federal budget is under continuing resolution through March 14 after which time the government would shut down is a budget deal is not reached. We also have Continuum of Care grant awards that were recently announced before the Trump Administration took office and grant contracts have not been sent out by HUD for grants that would be renewing very shortly; we want to urge Congress to step in and demand these awards are fully honored. Also, if you want to help, many non-profits and partners are sharing with the public their concerns and budget shortfalls. Please consider donating to our partner agencies.”
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
