Funding will be made available to communities that have provided temporary shelter and other eligible expenditures for migrants processed and provisionally released from the custody of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In a soon-to-be-published funding notice, the department – working through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – will award more than $290 million to 34 non-federal entities. This is all part of the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) and will benefit organizations like the Arizona-based World Hunger Ecumenical Task Force, Inc. and Catholic Charities, as well as governmental efforts such as San Diego County, Calif., and the Laredo Fire Department.
The largest single recipient will be the New York City Office of Management and Budget, which will take in $104,678,007. The smallest will be $132,000 for one of the World Hunger Ecumenical Task Force’s operations in Mesa, Ariz.
Another $73 million will be made available later this summer, according to DHS.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 allowed the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) National Board to allocate more than $400 million in support of communities receiving migrants. While previous funding rounds focused on the needs of border communities, this round expands the effort to interior cities receiving migrants.