District 1 Commissioner Jim Barry introduced a resolution at Tuesday’s board meeting requesting state Senators and representatives as well as President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson restore funding for Community Services Block Grants and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
“Given increases in housing and food costs, the loss of federal CSBG and LIHEAP funds, likely will threaten the physical shelter, safety and food security of more than 5,000 Ottawa County residents.”
Program Director Jennifer Brozowski explained that CSBG funding is the foundational grant for Ottawa County Community Action Agency, providing over $500,000 for food insecurity, energy and weatherization assistance programs.
“There are grave concerns across the community action network that if this grant goes away that community action, pieces of it, may go away and, I will say for our agency specifically, we would not be able to continue without it.”
Federal funding for those two grants was zeroed out in President Trump’s budget proposal. Congress has not voted on the budget bill, leading to the current government shutdown.
The Ottawa County board voted to send a letter to the president and Congressional leadership requesting funding restoration.
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