Editor’s note: This is part six of a thirteen-part series that explores the housing crisis affecting Port Townsend and Jefferson County

For Jefferson County housing providers, the greatest challenge is not just scarcity, but looming uncertainty.

The uncertainty comes from Washington, D.C., where President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts call for significant reductions to core housing programs. Section 8 vouchers, the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) are all under threat and some cuts could be as steep as 44%.

Jefferson County housing providers and supporters are directly impacted by those changes, creating a strong sense of uncertainty that is shaping decisions. 

“Much of the way we are able to place people in those housing units is in partnership with the Housing Authority,” said Viola Ware, housing director of Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP). “We just manage the property, while the Housing Authority is the one that funds it through a voucher attached to the unit. We also have several federally funded programs for youth and for adults.” 

Ware also noted that Continuum of Care, a homelessness crisis response system that oversees everything in the county, is federally funded. 

“Any time you remove our housing capacity, if we lose vouchers, we lose the ability to house people,” Ware said. “And if we lose the ability to house people, we are extending someone’s time outside or in a shelter, and the longer somebody remains homeless, the less positive returns they’re going to have in behavioral health and their health.”

Wait and see 

At Dove House, which operates transitional housing and survivor support programs in Jefferson County, Director Beulah Kingsolver said the effects of potential cuts go well beyond housing units. She said that nonprofits run on narrow margins, and with uncertainty clouding each grant cycle, funding reductions could affect more than just housing stability. Sufficient counseling, case management and other support services may be at risk.

“When you run a small nonprofit in a rural county, you don’t have reserves to carry people for months if federal money stops or slows. You’re living payroll to payroll, grant to grant,” Kingsolver said. “That’s the reality.”

Ware said that uncertainty compounds frustrations for those in need. “I’m talking with people that I have known for five years who have been outside or living and existing out of an emergency shelter, and they are giving up hope,” she said.

That helplessness extends to housing staff. “You get a lot of people that feel like they are just cut out and forgotten and left out,” Ware said. “You get staff that are burnt out and tired and get very depressed because you’re telling people no, I’m sorry. I can’t help you, but you know, there’s a shelter. Here’s a tent.”

Rep. Adam Bernbaum, who represents Washington’s 24th Legislative District, said that the ripple effects of inaction are already visible. Trump’s proposed federal housing cuts extend beyond immediate impacts. “Reduction in federal support — it’s not going to immediately create a big new increase in homelessness, but it’s going to make it a lot harder for us to have the type of rural economy that we want to have where housing isn’t crushing the household budgets of young families across our region, of senior citizens who are living on fixed incomes,” he said. 

“There’s so much that’s happening with this federal administration so quickly that it’s really tough for members of the public and for community leaders to come up with a plan that isn’t reactive,” he said. “The fact that these types of things are being contemplated, I think, just results in people being a lot more cautious. That translates maybe into less money going out.”

Beyond doom-gloom

Bernbaum, whose district encompasses all of Clallam and Jefferson counties as well as part of Grays Harbor County, said the pace of changes coming out of Washington, D.C., also has created challenges for future planning for local governments. Despite the potential rough road ahead, Bernbaum said solutions do exist, only if priorities shift with it. He is encouraged by the state’s commitment to addressing the crisis amid pending cuts. The changes also present an opportunity. 

“We’ve seen consistent year-over-year increases or biennium-over-biennium increases in the state’s funding of the Housing Trust Fund,” he said. “People want us to continue to build more housing, in particular, more affordable housing. In Washington, that’s not going to stop,” said Bernbaum.   

Ware said in the meantime, OlyCAP is preparing for cuts by piecing together whatever alternatives she can find.

“I am trying to find multiple different ways to diversify our funding. Whether it’s through donations or finding different types of grants or getting involved in other projects,” she said. “Any way that we can find to do that isn’t dependent on the federal grants. So much of this pivots on the federal funding.”

Ware said there is anxiety over looming cuts from the very people the system is supposed to serve. “Our folks that are out there that are struggling and that know that the funding for housing is in jeopardy as well. And that sense of urgency, that sense of ‘what now, what about me,’ right?” she said. “So, I guess I would ask that people have compassion. When they see somebody struggling or who might even be angry.”

OlyCAP is preparing for cuts in the only way they can. “Anytime that we have any opportunity, we have to kind of tap into other funding resources,” she said. “Those are limited, but it’s the best we can do.”

Kingsolver said the scope is a challenge in itself. “It’s difficult to even see a solution,” she said. “My big keyword is collaboration. I truly believe that in a community of this size and the county of this population, that collectively, cooperatively, we can make it work, we can make it happen.”

For now, Jefferson County will have to wait and see.