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Last week, Gov. Tina Kotek asked state agencies to identify all streams of federal funding the Trump administration’s threats have imperiled.
One obscure, jargony line item, the Climate Equity and Resilience Through Action, or CERTA, grant program, which sends money from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to local Oregon communities, shows what’s at stake.
Tillamook County is counting on CERTA money for help to fund three badly needed affordable housing developments. Recent research by ECOnorthwest found that the county has a housing vacancy rate 36% lower than the national average and lower than that in any U.S. state except Connecticut (“Last One Home,” WW, Jan. 29).
Oregon officials learned the state had gotten the federal money last July and, after months of preparation, were planning to announce local allocations last week. That didn’t happen.
“DEQ indicated they can’t access the funds now,” Tillamook County housing coordinator Parker Sammons tells the Oregon Journalism Project. “Last Monday [Feb. 3], I would have said that it was a lock, but now the uncertainty is growing every hour.”
Oregon is heavily dependent on federal funds: The state’s 2023-25 adopted budget, for example, consists of a $31.9 billion general fund, derived from Oregon income taxes. But the budget includes a larger sum, $37.9 billion, in federal funds that flow from Washington, D.C.
As Trump’s team furiously combs through the dollars allocated under his predecessor, Oregon’s access to federal money—for medical research at Oregon Health & Science University and any number of other uses—is up in the air. (For what it’s worth, Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in Tillamook County by 1.4 percentage points.)
“We should all be paying close attention to the federal administration’s reckless decision to freeze critical funding,” Kotek says. “In this case, Tillamook County is focused on building housing with these dollars. The state has been a close partner with local communities that are implementing creative solutions to a complex housing crisis. I expect the federal government to follow through with their funding commitments to Oregonians.”
Here, by the numbers, is Tillamook County’s predicament:
$197.2 MILLION: That’s Oregon’s total allocation from the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which is aimed at “reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution.” The money came from former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, and DEQ confirmed Feb. 11 that it remains frozen.
$25.6 MILLION: That’s the slice of the Oregon grants earmarked for developing new, more efficient housing ($15.33 million) and “converting vacant or underutilized existing buildings to housing” ($9.92 million).
$3.78 MILLION: That’s Tillamook County’s allocation of the dollars aimed at promoting new housing (Bend, Hood River and Eugene also got money through the program).
Tillamook County’s Sammons says the plan was to spread the dollars across three multifamily projects, one in Manzanita, one in Rockaway Beach and one in Tillamook, totaling 180 units. Soaring home prices and the lack of developable land on the coast mean that Tillamook County employers have to import labor from the metro area, and those workers who can live locally often commute up to an hour.
Sammons says local leaders are particularly proud of a planned 36-unit workforce housing development near Tillamook Hospital, which has pre-leasing commitments from teachers, nurses and dairy workers. All three of the projects rely on a patchwork of funding sources to make them pencil, and losing the federal dollars would jeopardize them.
“The federal dollars are a critical part,” Sammons says. “In terms of morale, this is devastating.”
This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering rural Oregon. OJP seeks to inform, engage, and empower readers with investigative and watchdog reporting that makes an impact. Our stories appear in partner newspapers across the state. Learn more at oregonjournalismproject.org.