Pause of Death: Why Pausing the Emergency Food & Shelter Program is a Death Sentence
Imagine a world where individuals are going to bed hungry or facing the cold streets with nowhere to turn, and only being met with closed doors and barren cupboards.
Unfortunately, you don’t need to imagine it. New Yorkers are living it, daily.
For thousands of vulnerable individuals and families, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) has been a lifeline—until it was put on hold. The consequences of this pause are dire, with those about to be evicted looking for a life lifeline that never comes and food pantries running dangerously low.
On January 27, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a memorandum to federal agencies, requiring a temporary pause on all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance, and other relevant activities that may be implicated by the recent Executive Orders.
Although OMB rescinded the memorandum, EFSP has not been allowed to release payments to local service providers including soup kitchens and shelters.
The program is being reviewed within FEMA to ensure it complies with the Executive Orders and Department of Homeland Security guidance. Until clearance is received, EFSP cannot draw down the necessary funds from FEMA’s payment system to pay agencies participating in the program.
Let’s be clear, much of this money has been spent. Organizations across our great state and frankly the country have depended on the basic expectation of being awarded these funds to meet local needs of their community, get a contract that guarantees that the money spent for the categories predetermined by our government would be covered as per the contractual obligation that is a basic cannon of our relationship between community, providers and our government.
This is not just a bureaucratic delay; it’s a direct threat to the lives of those in need. We cannot afford inaction. We call on our Congressional Delegation—the entire New York Delegation—to stand up for this program, and unpause this critical funding. Lives depend on it; the future of our state relies on it.
Our elected officials must prioritize restoring funding immediately, ensuring that no one in our communities is without basic human rights . Every New Yorker has a right to food and shelter. We implore Leader Schumer and Senator Gillibrand to press the Administration to end this pause, immediately.
This pause has a real consequence on the numbers, with an over $8million dollar impact across the state, and affecting over 200 organizations, and millions of New Yorkers.
The halls of the afterlife are filled with too many who died because of hunger and homelessness. The lives of New Yorkers are in the hands of those we elected to office- and we will fight for them until this funding is released.
Grace Bonilla serves as President & CEO of United Way of New York City,
Therese Daly serves as President & CEO of United Way of New York State.
