NEW YORK (PIX11) -- Thousands of people across New York City benefit from food pantries and soup kitchens, but many of these local organizations stopped receiving funding when the Trump administration decided to pause funding.
Although that order was rescinded local organizations have still not received the funds for money that has already been spent.
“It’s not about just someone being homeless, everyone has a different story,” said Empress Lyriz, who recently lost both her mother and grandmother and currently doesn’t have a place to live. Every day, she lines up outside neighbors together to grab a free meal from the community café.
The organization has been serving meals twice a day for over 40 years in the Ocean Hill/Brownsville section of Brooklyn.
Natalie Smythe, director of programs and human resources at Neighbors Together says, “We serve about 700 meals per day, so we are looking at around 200-300 families.”
But their meal program is at risk. That’s because their funds come from the emergency food and shelter program, which is FEMA-funded and was established back in the 80s. But back in January was ordered to be paused by the incoming administration
“On Jan. 27 the federal Office of Management and Budget issued an order that said we are not going to pay any federal grants until further notice.”
Cheryl Huber at United Way of NYC -- a FEMA partner--- says they oversee determining which local organizations can receive the program’s federal funds. She says although the memo issued by Trump's administration was rescinded, the FEMA program has not been allowed to release payments to local service providers including soup kitchens and shelters.
Out of 220 organizations relying on the funding to feed & shelter those in need, 95 organizations are owed money for work they have already done.
According to Bennett Gershman, a PACE law school professor, the action by the federal government was unlawful and unlike anything we’ve seen before. “It's not really clear once you’ve frozen then you rescind it, how do you get back to where you were?”
In a statement, FEMA said in part: “Per Secretary Noem’s direction on grants to non-governmental organizations memorandum, FEMA and DHS are instituting additional reviews on all grants to non-governmental organizations as well as funding for non-congregate sheltering activities.”
United Way of NYC has reached out to the congressional delegation of New York for support to see if they can push for the funds to be released.
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