For Missouri’s 19 community action agencies, federal funding and staffing cuts threaten emergency services like utility assistance, summer food programs and shelter for victims of domestic violence. 

The agencies run programs like weatherization upgrades for low-income homeowners and Head Start, which provides child care, early childhood education and nutrition assistance for families living in poverty. 

Now, with shifting priorities in Washington focused on slashing federal spending, the agencies fear what potential cuts may mean for lifting Missourians out of poverty and providing economic stability in times of crisis. 

“I’ve been here just shy of 20 years, so I’ve seen things come and go at the federal level,” said Darin Preis, the executive director of Central Missouri Community Action in Columbia. “Certainly, this is the shakiest I’ve ever seen things, and that even includes the COVID years.” 

So far, the Trump administration has paused a year’s worth of funding for the family planning program, Title X, which many community action agencies help administer. The program provides sliding-scale family planning services like birth control and STI screenings. 

The administration also eliminated staffing for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program office, or LIHEAP, which provides different forms of utility assistance for low-income families. Although the funding flowing to states is still intact, the agencies worry what cuts from the top of the program may mean for their operations. 

“If you remove the people at the top level, that’s like a puzzle piece missing,” said Lindsey Dumas-Bell, the resource development manager for Ozarks Area Community Action in Springfield. “It will affect things at some point.” 

Community action agencies provided some form of assistance for more than 185,000 Missourians in 2023 and served about 85,000 households experiencing economic instability. In fiscal year 2023, nearly 13% of the state had household income at or below 100% of the federal poverty line. 

“I have to think that most of what we do has pretty broad bipartisan support,” Preis said. “We’ll have lots of allies that can help us, but there’s just so much uncertainty.” 

“I am forced to just deal with today. I’m checking how many days of cash do I have. How long can I pay staff if the federal government decides to stop paying on a grant?” Preis said. “It changes the way I have to think about things… Step one is sorting out the smoke and mirrors from the truth and the facts, because there’s a lot of conflicting information out there.” 

How community action agencies support local needs through programs like Head Start

Community action agencies were established in 1964 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society initiatives to alleviate poverty. His administration created the Office of Economic Opportunity, which launched community action agencies to work at the local level and provide assistance to low-income Americans. 

Agencies receive several sources of federal funding for various different programs they pilot. The main source of money comes from the community services block grant, or CSBG, which allows agencies to direct the money as needed in their communities. 

Missouri receives about $21 million through the CSBG on an annual basis. Every three years, community action agencies are required to do a needs survey across the areas that they serve, and the survey determines what programs and services they will prioritize based on their region. 

“It looks different in different communities,” said Megan Bania, the executive director of Missouri Community Action Network, the state organization that oversees regional agencies. “Our folks are local experts on what’s happening in their community and bringing in the kind of assistance they need.” 

All agencies operate the LIHEAP program, which provides emergency utility assistance to households that are under the threat of having their utilities disconnected. That program sends about $75 million to Missouri on an annual basis. They also administer weatherization programs, with about $7 million in funding a year, to help reduce energy costs for households. 

The Trump administration cut the 25 federal staff positions that administer the LIHEAP program in early April. Preis said if those staffing cuts lead to funding cuts, Missourians will be forced to make difficult decisions if the agencies cannot find a way to make up those dollars. 

“If we’re not able to help someone pay their utility bill,” Preis said, “they’re making decisions like ‘Should I not buy medicine this month? Should I not get healthier food?’” 

Preis and Central Missouri Community Action also run some affordable housing initiatives in their region, which includes administering the housing choice voucher and building homes and apartment complexes in Columbia and Jefferson City. 

Even without funding cuts from Washington, Preis said, funding levels haven’t kept up with inflation. Things like rent, insurance and food have all gone up in cost. Their budgets are usually funded through a budget process called continuing resolutions at the congressional level, meaning they don’t get many opportunities to lobby lawmakers for increased funding — just continued levels of what they were already receiving. 

“It’s difficult whenever full budgets don’t get passed,” Bania said. “It’s a challenge in business continuity, not knowing what will happen when a (continuing resolution) expires is difficult.” 

Because of the different streams of funding that community action agencies receive, they can be somewhat flexible with how they allocate their resources. 

“We have been engaging in a lot of activities to shore up what their cash flows look like, to shore up the business operation side to make sure that they can keep the critical services that are needed in their communities,” Bania said. 

About 94% of federal funding goes directly toward assistance and relief for Missourians, Bania said, while the rest of the funds go toward administrative costs like staffing. 

Community action agencies play a larger role in rural Missouri 

In many parts of the state, community action agencies are the largest nonprofit organization operating in the area. That shifts more of the responsibility for caring for the community into their hands. 

“In mid-March and April we had some historic tornado events in our communities,” Bania said. “Agencies immediately went into disaster response because that’s what their community needs.” 

Because of the flexibility of the federal CSBG money, agencies were able to buy relief items like tents, batteries and food for tornado victims. They were also tasked with collecting donations from the public and organizing them into relief. 

“The natural infrastructure was there from operating federal assistance awards, and agencies were able to manage those donations and funnel them into services,” Bania said. 

Agencies are waiting to see what President Donald Trump will or won’t include in his budget proposal to help shape how they are thinking about the future. Trump’s budget reportedly does not include any funds for Head Start or LIHEAP programs, USA Today reported earlier this month. 

Preis said he’s tried talking with Missouri’s congressional delegation about their support for the program, but so far has only been in contact with legislative staffers in their offices. 

“When I say, ‘Can you support Head Start next year?’ they say things like, ‘We appreciate you coming in and talking to us and helping us understand.’ But I’m not getting any commitments,” he said. 

It’s a concern for him and other community action agency directors who run Head Start programs. 

Missouri receives more than $182 million for Head Start and Early Head Start programs on an annual basis. Nationwide, nearly 46% of the Head Start slots available were in rural areas, while just under 32% were in suburban areas, and about 22% were in urban areas, according to the Center for American Progress. Not all Head Start programs are operated by community action agencies. 

Community surveys show that programs that offer child care like Head Start are key pieces of improving a family’s economic situation. In the Ozark Community Action Agency’s 2023 needs assessment, nearly 75% of those surveyed responded that a lack of child care was the biggest barrier to employment in their community. 

Dumas-Bell said that agencies are still waiting to see what the future holds for their programs. If funding does get cut, they’ll work to find ways to fill in the gaps, she said.

“We don’t want to be alarmist. We don’t want to scare people and tell them that they need to worry,” she said. “At the same time, I think people do need to understand that they can use their voice to share how important these programs are.”