Humility Homes and Services, a Davenport-based nonprofit, hosted two community roundtables on March 13 and 14 to discuss the impacts of federal funding on Quad Cities housing and shelters.
Chief Development Officer Megan Brown-Saldana said half of all Quad Cities residents pay more than 30% of their income towards housing, which exceeds the government’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition of affordable housing.
“They see the face of homelessness, and they can, you know, acknowledge what it looks like for a person to be standing on the side of the road, and that’s what it is," Brown-Saldana said. "But most people in the Quad Cities are only one bad thing away from losing everything.”
Over 40% of Humility’s funding comes from the federal level, she said, with two of the programs ending this calendar year. Brown-Saldana said these are HUD’s Rapid-Rehousing (HUD RRH) and Rapid-Rehousing Emergency Rental Assitance (RRH-ERA2), which was passed in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
She said a third, ARPA, is set to end in 2026.
At the talk, Brown-Saldana also spoke about the effects of executive orders on the organization, citing federal rulings surrounding DEI and gender. In the first week of President Trump’s administration, she said Humility received its grant contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that required the organization “only to list binary gender”.
In light of the new administration, Brown-Saldana said one major fear the staff has is the potential threats Project 2025 poses to Housing First.
"It means that we have to require you to seek addiction counseling in order to stay at our shelter," Brown-Saldana said. "It means that if you are fleeing domestic violence and you have a police record, and we, you know, let you come stay here anyway, that we could lose funding.”
WVIK spoke with two Sisters of St. Benedict St. Mary Monastery Church in Rock Island who participated in the discussion. Sister Rachel Bergschneider said she was overwhelmed with the data found within the community. Sister Sandra Brunenn agreed and said the statistics provided on homeless youth particularly struck her.
"I guess I’m kind of speechless with hearing that amount of need," Sister Bergschneider said. "There’s so many things that need to be done in terms of family, in terms of fractured families, and all the reasons that this is going on.”
The talks were held on March 13 from 5-6:30 p.m. and March 14 from 8:30-10 a.m. at 522 Filmore Street in Davenport, located at the former St. Mary’s Catholic Church. For more information, visit Humility Homes’ website.
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