The partial government shutdown is now in its third week. That has providers of federal low-income housing and food assistance programs getting more worried, including Ability Housing CEO Shannon Nazworth.
The Jacksonville nonprofit receives funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to help low-income families as well as the elderly and the disabled pay their rent.
“You know, if the shutdown does continue and those funds are depleted, we won’t have that ability to provide that rent subsidy and we will have tenants renting units from other landlords in the community and don’t have the ability to pay the full rent,” said Nazworth.
Should that happen, her organization would try to work something out with the landlords involved.
“But if this really does continue and those grant funds are diminished, that will really create a crisis for Ability Housing and, more importantly, for the people living in those housing units,” Nazworth said.
Nazworth said she’s heard HUD expects to provide funding through January but that it’s anybody’s guess after that.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.
