Temporary pause to federal aid causes uncertainty for Winston-Salem housing authority

A temporary pause in funding federal loans and grants caused widespread confusion across several agencies including local housing authorities.

The White House Office of Management and Budget sent out a memo Monday announcing a pause in federal funding. On Wednesday, that order was rescinded.

But the move was enough to cause concern for the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem and its residents. HAWS Executive Director Kevin Cheshire says for about 24 hours they were unable to access federal funds.

"I think everybody was unclear, which was part of the issue," Cheshire says. "HUD wasn't sure which programs were intended to be affected and which weren't, so it just locked us out of everything."

He says they were later notified by HUD that housing vouchers would not be affected. But they remained uncertain on the impact on other grants and subsidies.

A statement posted on HAWS website Tuesday that has since been removed said it anticipates its programs will continue but "it is possible that some payments to vendors and, or landlords may be slightly delayed."

Cheshire says moving forward the current concern isn't necessarily a similar freeze happening, but that it's important to recognize just how dependent they are on the funding. 

"It's certainly not something that we are anticipating will happen again in the same way that it happened this time," he says. "But it is an acknowledgement  on our part that we cease to exist and our programs cease to function if we're unable to access federal dollars that have been allocated to those programs."

Cheshire says thankfully the order was rescinded and now they're able to access their financial systems.