The alliance says the Dayton region could possibly lose more than 1,000 permanent housing beds, and local agencies likely will have to compete for a much larger share of funding than they did in the past.
Jessica Jenkins, director of Montgomery County Human Services Planning & Development, said this significant shift in funding priorities jeopardizes millions of dollars for funding and projects.
“The changes could mean that formerly homeless households who have now found housing stability will be at risk again,” she said. “The changes also endanger projects that help currently homeless households resolve their housing crisis through housing and supportive services.”
What else is impacting southern Ohio?
• SNAP eligibility: More than 1,000 immigrants in Montgomery County who are legally in the county but not U.S. citizens lost eligibility for the federal food assistance program after the passage of the tax and spending bill President Donald Trump signed into law this summer. No longer eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are refugees, asylees, humanitarian parolees, immigrants granted conditional entries and more. Undocumented immigrants were already not eligible for SNAP benefits. Trump’s administration also warned that it will withhold money for administering SNAP food aid in most Democratic-controlled states, unless those states provide information about people receiving the assistance.
• Venezuelan boats: Dayton’s congressman pointedly questioned the Trump administration’s approach in striking what the administration alleges are drug boats heading to the United States from Central and South America. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, said in a Face the Nation interview that an alleged follow-up strike against surviving boat passengers in the water after an initial strike would be illegal, if those reports are true. The Washington Post reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the killing of all passengers aboard a boat suspected of ferrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea in September.
• Weapons chief: The nomination of a three-star Air Force general to serve as the new leader of how the military acquires critical new weapons should be good news for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Turner also said in a new interview. Lt. Gen. Dale White, a three-star general, is nominated for promotion to a fourth star and assignment as “direct reporting portfolio manager for critical major weapon systems programs,” the DOD said recently.
Other federal updates:
• Trump accounts: Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion to provide 25 million American children 10 and younger an incentive to claim the new investment accounts for children created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation. The U.S. Department of the Treasury will deposit $1,000 into investment accounts it sets up for American children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028. The Dells’ gift will use the “Trump Accounts” infrastructure to give $250 to each qualified child under 11. Few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years have exceeded $1 billion.
• MRI: Trump’s doctor says the president had MRI imaging on his heart and abdomen in October as part of a preventative screening for men his age, concluding the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging was “perfectly normal.” The Republican president said Sunday during an exchange with reporters as he traveled back to Washington from Florida that the results of the MRI were “perfect.” Trump added that he has “no idea” on what part of his body he got the MRI. Doctors typically order an MRI to help with diagnosing symptoms or to monitor an ongoing health problem — preventative cardiac and abdominal MRIs are not part of routine screening recommendations.
• Somalia: Trump said he did not want Somali immigrants in the U.S., saying residents of the war-ravaged eastern African country are too reliant on U.S. social safety net and add little to the country. The president’s comment came days after his administration announced it is halting all asylum decisions following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington. The suspect in last week’s incident is originally from Afghanistan but Trump has used the moment to raise questions about immigrants from other nations, including Somalia. Trump specifically jabbed at Minnesota, where federal authorities are preparing a targeted immigration enforcement operation focused on Somali immigrants.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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