Trump approves disaster declaration for Southwest Virginia communities hit by February flooding
A major disaster declaration for the Southwest Virginia counties affected by catastrophic flooding in February has been approved by President Donald Trump, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Friday afternoon.
The disaster declaration, which opens up federal aid, was for public assistance only, while a final determination on individual assistance has not been made, according to the governor.
Individual assistance provides funding to eligible individuals and households that have sustained losses in a disaster. Public assistance can pay for repairing and replacing public facilities and infrastructure.
Additional funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and new state funding agreed to by the governor and the General Assembly this week will also be available for ongoing recovery efforts, according to Youngkin.
“I am grateful to President Trump and the entire Administration for moving forward in their approval of the major disaster declaration,” Youngkin said in a news release. “We will continue to seek every recovery resource necessary to support Virginians that have been adversely impacted by these storms. I committed to assist those with immediate needs to ensure the health and safety of survivors and we will continue our efforts to seek opportunities to rebuild these communities.”
Following several days of heavy rain, storms hit over the weekend of Feb. 15-16, destroying and damaging homes, washing out roads and leaving thousands without power. The community of Hurley in Buchanan County and parts of Dickenson and Tazewell counties were particularly hit hard.
As much as 7 inches of rain fell over some parts of Southwest Virginia, resulting in flash flooding, closed roads and mudslides. One man died after being swept away by the high water in Bland County. Ninety homes had major damage, and 18 houses were destroyed, according to preliminary estimates from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Originally, the disaster declaration request was for Buchanan, Dickenson and Russell counties, but the governor later expanded it to include Bland, Giles, Lee, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth and Wise counties.
“President Trump’s approval of this request is a major step in securing federal resources to help Southwest Virginia recover from historic flooding,” Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, said via text message Friday.
The General Assembly approved $50 million in the state budget to help communities rebuild after the remnants of Hurricane Helene swept through the region last fall. This week, lawmakers approved an amendment by Youngkin to extend that relief to assist victims of the February flooding.
“It’s important that we continue to collaborate at all levels of government to ensure that resources are deployed effectively and efficiently,” Pillion added.
Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, said he is grateful to the Trump administration for the approval of the disaster declaration.
“I’m also grateful to Governor Glenn Youngkin and our entire Southwest Virginia legislative delegation for working with our federal partners to see this funding through to approval,” he said via email Friday. “So many homes and businesses were damaged in both Hurricane Helene and the February 2025 flood. Now we have access to these desperately needed funds.”
Del. William Morefield, R-Tazewell County, said the news of the approval is encouraging. He said he remains hopeful that individual assistance will be approved eventually, as well.
“In the event that individual assistance is not approved, the flood victims can rest assured knowing the commonwealth will be there to provide individual assistance as proposed in the state budget,” he said.
Morefield added that the federal assistance formulas for determining disaster aid are flawed, and he called on Congress to consider revising them.
“I have heard some members of Congress speak about this on several occasions but I have yet to see any meaningful effort being made,” he said. “I commend President Trump, Governor Youngkin and our colleagues in the General Assembly for making every effort to help so many individuals with few resources help rebuild their lives.”
Tazewell County Administrator Eric Young said Friday that he’s grateful for any federal or state assistance.
“The one-two punch of the hurricane at the end of September and floods in early February truly taxed our resources and our energy,” he said.
The flooding and storms also affected neighboring states, particularly Kentucky and West Virginia. Kentucky’s disaster declaration was for public and individual assistance and was approved Feb. 24. West Virginia’s, for public assistance only, was approved Feb. 26.
Tribal colleges win reprieve from federal staff cuts
After weeks of uncertainty, two tribal colleges have been told they can hire back all employees who were laid off as part of the Trump administration’s deep cuts across the federal workforce in February, part of a judge’s order restoring some federal employees whose positions were terminated.
Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, widely known as SIPI, in New Mexico lost about 70 employees in mid-February amid widespread staffing cuts to federal agencies. While most of the nation’s 37 tribal colleges and universities are chartered by American Indian tribes, Haskell and SIPI are not associated with individual tribes and are run by the federal government.
About 55 employees were laid off and 15 accepted offers to resign, according to a lawsuit filed last month by tribes and students. The colleges were forced to cancel or reconfigure a wide range of services, from sports and food service to financial aid and classes. In some cases, instructors were hired by other universities as adjuncts and then sent back to the tribal colleges to keep teaching.
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It was not clear this week when and if the workers would return, whether the employees who resigned would also be offered their jobs back, or if the government would allow colleges to fill vacancies. Both colleges said some employees had turned down the offers.
The Bureau of Indian Education, which runs the colleges, declined to answer questions except to confirm the laid-off workers would be offered jobs with back pay to comply with a judge’s order that the government reverse course on thousands of layoffs of probationary employees. But the agency also noted the jobs would be available “as the White House pursues its appeals process,” indicating possible turmoil if an appeals court reinstates the layoffs.
Both colleges said the bureau also has refused to answer most of their questions.
SIPI leaders were told last week that the positions were being restored, said Adam Begaye, chairman of the SIPI Board of Regents. The 270-student college lost 21 employees, he said, four of whom decided to take early retirement. All but one of the remaining 17 agreed to return, Begaye said.
The chaos has been difficult for those employees, he said, and the college is providing counseling.
“We want to make sure they have an easy adjustment, no matter what they’ve endured,” Begaye said.
The chairman of Haskell’s Board of Regents, Dalton Henry, said he was unsure how many of the 50 lost employees were returning. Like SIPI, Haskell was forced after the layoffs to shift job responsibilities and increase the workload for instructors and others.
Haskell was reviewed by accreditors in December, and Henry said he was worried how the turmoil would affect the process. Colleges and universities must be accredited to offer federal and state financial aid and participate in most other publicly funded programs.
Henry declined to discuss his thoughts on the chaos, saying there was nothing the college could do about it.
“Whatever guidance is provided, that’s what we have to adhere to,” he said. “It’s a concern. But at this point, it’s the federal government’s decision.”
The Bureau of Indian Affairs declined to make the presidents of the two colleges available for interviews.
Tribal colleges and universities were established to comply with treaties and the federal trust responsibility, legally binding agreements in which the United States promised to fund Indigenous education and other needs. But college leaders argue the country has violated those contracts by consistently failing to fund the schools adequately.
In the federal lawsuit claiming the Haskell and SIPI cuts were illegal, students and tribes argued the Bureau of Indian Education has long understaffed the colleges. The agency’s “well-documented and persistent inadequacies in operating its schools range from fiscal mismanagement to failure to provide adequate education to inhospitable buildings,” plaintiffs claimed.
Sen. Jerry Moran and Rep. Tracey Mann, both Kansas Republicans, said before Trump took office that they plan to introduce a bill shifting Haskell from federal control to a congressional charter, which would protect the university from cuts across federal agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Education.
“[F]or the last few years the university has been neglected and mismanaged by the Bureau of Indian Education,” Moran said in a written statement in December. “The bureau has failed to protect students, respond to my congressional inquiries or meet the basic infrastructure needs of the school.”
The February cuts brought rare public visibility to tribal colleges, most of which are in remote locations. Trump’s executive orders spurred outrage from Indigenous communities and a flurry of national news attention.
“We’re using this chaos as a blessing in disguise to make sure our family and friends in the community know what SIPI provides,” said Begaye, the SIPI board president.
The uncertainty surrounding the colleges’ funding has left a lasting mark, said Ahniwake Rose, president and CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, which advocates for tribal colleges. But she added she was proud of how the schools have weathered the cuts.
“Indian country is always one of the most resourceful and creative populations,” she said. “We’ve always made do with less. I think you saw resilience and creativity from Haskell and SIPI.”
Montana food banks hit by cuts to federal assistance
Montana food banks are set to lose more than 300,000 pounds of food after significant cuts to a federal program that purchases healthy foods to distribute to those in need.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed earlier this week that it canceled $500 million in purchases for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, according to a press release from the Missoula Food Bank and Community Center.
The Montana Food Bank Network, which distributes food to 330 partnering food banks and other organizations, will lose more than $400,000 worth of food, according to the organization’s Facebook page.
The Missoula Food Bank will lose 91,000 pounds of food, or $180,000 in inventory, from the cuts, according to the organization. Last year, the food bank distributed 2.8 million pounds of food, including 228,290 pounds from the emergency assistance program.
The federal program was initially set up to move nutritious food from farms to food banks, Amy Allison, the Missoula Food Bank’s executive director, told Montana Free Press. The food bank receives a variety of food through the program, including nuts, raisins, cheese and other dairy products, she said.
“Unfortunately this will cause a reduction in the variety we [offer],” Allison said. “We think variety is very important because everyone’s diets should be diverse.”
The reduction will also significantly impact the food bank’s budget, Allison said. The nonprofit will likely fundraise to try to make up that deficit, which will be “incredibly challenging” if additional federal funding is cut, she said.
Government funding makes up about 21% of the organization’s budget and losing certain programs funded by federal money would be harmful for the community, Allison said. If money for the food bank’s federally funded Kids Table program, which provides free breakfast and lunch for children during the summer, is cut or reduced, it would have a significant impact on food security in the community, she said.
Rising grocery prices and increasing financial strain are driving higher demand for food bank services, which Allison said is expected to continue. On multiple days this year, the food bank has served more than 400 families, Allison said.
“We’ve never seen numbers like that, especially on a regular basis,” she said. “With the high cost of living in our community and rising food costs, we’re concerned the demand is only going to increase, especially as layoffs occur and some safety net programs are threatened.”
Even if other federal food program funding isn’t cut, reductions to other social safety net programs will reduce people’s ability to stretch their dollar and increase demand for food banks, Allison said. Despite the situation, anyone in need of food should not hesitate to access the organization’s programs, she said.
“I want to press the fact that we are still going to be here even when these cuts are made,” Allison said. “We are very strong, have the support of a very generous community and are not going anywhere. Our shelves are not bare, we stock several times per day and no one leaves empty-handed.”
Allison encouraged those who are able to donate and advocate against cuts like these on the state and federal levels. Donations of food and money can be made at the food bank or online. More information, including how to volunteer, is available on the Missoula Food Bank’s website.
While it’s unclear how significant the cut to the Emergency Food Assistance Program will be for the HRDC’s three food banks in Gallatin County, the organization is bracing for the change later this year, said Jill Holder, the nonprofit’s food and nutrition director.
Food from the assistance program makes up about 5%, or 100,000 pounds, of the Gallatin Valley Food Bank’s inventory, Holder said. The program accounts for about 19% of the food distributed by the Headwaters Area Food Bank in Three Forks and Big Sky Community Food Bank, she said.
“With the high cost of living in our community and rising food costs, we’re concerned the demand is only going to increase, especially as layoffs occur and some safety net programs are threatened.”
Amy Allison, the Missoula Food Bank’s executive director
It’s hard to know how much the reduction will affect the HRDC’s budget, but the organization will ultimately have to find any lost food from different sources, Holder said.
“That’s where food drives and community involvement are so important to the survival of food banks,” she said.
The HRDC is holding its annual Spring for Food Drive on Saturday with a goal of collecting 15,000 pounds of food, Holder said. Volunteers at grocery stores across Bozeman and Belgrade will distribute wishlists and collect donations of non-perishable items and hardy produce like carrots, potatoes and apples from shoppers from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Those interested can get volunteer information or make monetary donations online.
Holder said the food drive, one of the organization’s biggest of the year, will help support the rising number of families relying on food assistance. The Gallatin Valley Food Bank in Bozeman is serving 1,900 to 2,000 households per month compared to the previous average of 1,400, Holder said. That increase is due in part to population growth as well as the rising cost of living, she said.
The HRDC food banks have enough food and those who need help should come in, Holder said.
“Sometimes you need help, and sometimes you can give help. That’s the whole spirit of community food banking,” she said.
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The Trump administration just delayed West Virginia’s broadband expansion. Here’s what that means.
While the Trump administration is rewriting a federal program to bring high-speed internet to millions of households nationwide, West Virginia’s broadband expansion has been delayed for three more months.
West Virginians will have to wait even longer to get connected, falling further behind other states that have made significant strides in broadband.
“This 90-day delay is understandable,” said Bill Bissett, chair of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council. “But it’s still 90 days that we won’t have funding to reach unserved and underserved West Virginians who are still waiting for broadband.”
Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that the state received a three-month extension to change an application originally due later this month for more than a billion dollars in broadband money.
He said the new extension would help the state focus on using the money to “attract investment from AI hubs, microgrids and data centers.”
In a press conference Thursday, Morrisey said he met with federal officials in the Trump administration to learn more about the proposed changes to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.
“I want to make sure we do it right,” he said. “It would have been foolish to just submit something that was going to get rejected.”
Gov. Patrick Morrisey speaks during a press conference last month. Photo courtesy the Governor’s Office.
The BEAD program is a federal investment that funds broadband projects across the country. West Virginia is slated to receive $1.2 billion of the funds later this year to connect thousands of homes and businesses.
After nearly two years of planning, West Virginia was due to submit an application for how the state would use the money later this month.
Other states like Delaware, Nevada and Louisiana have already submitted their applications and have been approved since early January.
In February, West Virginia broadband officials told lawmakers they were moving ahead with the final application and presented no uncertainty about potential federal changes to the program or threats to the funding.
Just a week later, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said the BEAD program would be under “rigorous review” as the new administration worked to streamline the program requirements.
Charlie Dennie, former director of the state’s broadband office, said federal officials are changing the program’s rules to open the door for Elon Musk’s Starlink to have a larger share of the funding following his large campaign donations to the new administration.
“They’re most likely working to roll back the rules from the Biden administration,” he said. “But the money has already been allocated by Congress.”
Morrisey said Thursday that the state was changing its application to meet the new rules for the program but declined to elaborate on what those changes would be.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, said in a statement that she thinks the federal changes will speed up deployment and hopes the state will be moving forward in the process by the end of July.
“I’m disappointed that after nearly four years, many West Virginians have to keep waiting for broadband.”
Editors note: This story has been updated with a statement from Sen. Capito.
Rural Youth Face Funding Cuts for Local Foods for Schools Program
School kids in rural Maine have benefited from a national U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) program bringing local produce, including seafood and Maine-grown grains, to school cafeterias.
Those same rural kids and their families will likely face an increase in food insecurity as the USDA notified states that they are ending the Local Foods for Schools (LFS) program, a national pandemic-era program that provided $660 million for schools to purchase food from local farmers and producers in all fifty states, US territories, and for federally recognized tribes.
This change comes at a time when the USDA is finalizing changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including adding work requirements, limiting work exemptions, and reducing the benefit amounts, all of which would disproportionately affect rural Americans.
Full Plates, Full Potential is a food advocacy and implementation organization in Maine. They support schools and other organizations that provide food to kids through federal nutrition programs, including supporting schools in applying for federal funds to purchase local foods.
“A lot of our work in Maine has involved ‘how on earth are we going to feed our kids?’,” Anna Korsen, the Policy and Program Director for nonprofit Full Plates, Full Potential, said.
Maine provides free lunches to all students, not just those who qualify as low-income, making the loss of $2.8 million in federal funding for local food purchasing hit the state especially hard.
As most of Maine falls within USDA’s rural designation, most of Maine’s kids and schools are in rural communities.
“For kids who are experiencing food insecurity, the only reliable meals that they have in a day are often breakfast and lunch. Those are also the healthiest meals that they have access to. So when the federal government pulls this funding, that’s going to impact the nutrition and quality of the meals that those kids are receiving,” Korsen said.
It isn’t just students who will suffer. The funding cut will also affect Maine’s agricultural industry, as the funds specifically went to purchase produce from farms that partnered with schools.
“Schools are often the biggest restaurant in a community, especially in rural areas in states like Maine. And so, you know, that’s going to have a big impact on these small farms,” Korsen said.
Full Plates is taking steps to ensure Maine decision-makers understand how important these programs are to kids, families, schools, and farms. They’re also thinking about things like mutual aid, though Korsen admits it will be tough to fill a funding gap that could be billions of dollars without federal support.
Allison Leavitt, the nutrition director for Lisbon Schools in southeastern Maine, has seen benefits from the assistance received through the LFS program. She also noted that in the current economy, they could use more federal help to make their food, not less.
“I’ve already blown through what was budgeted for my regular food allowance as of today, and we have until June to keep feeding kids,” Leavitt said. “Anybody that goes to the grocery store knows that everything is more expensive. So every single little last dollar that we could have, and especially if we can keep it in the local economy, is very much needed.”
“We are very concerned that millions of people could be at risk of losing some or all of the food benefits that they need to put food on the table,” Katie Bergh, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said.
In 2023,14.3% of rural households participated in SNAP compared to 11.9% in metropolitan areas, Bergh told the Yonder. In addition to SNAP’s direct benefits to the families who need to put food on the table, it also acts as an important economic stimulus. The Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimated that every additional dollar spent on SNAP in a weak economy generates $1.54 in economic activity.
“It is highly effective at reducing food insecurity, and poverty research has linked participation to better health, improved educational attainment, better labor market outcomes, particularly for people who participate in SNAP as children,” Bergh said.
“Those food benefits are federal dollars that go directly to low-income families who then spend them at local grocery stores in their communities. And that’s not only generating revenues for the local grocery store, it’s also supporting jobs throughout the entire food supply chain,” she said.
“School meals are often the most reliable and nutritious meals available to food-insecure kids, so the termination of LFS will negatively impact the quality of food being served to food-insecure children,” according to Korsen.
According to Bergh, everyone involved with emergency feeding networks agrees that charity won’t be able to fill the gap in funding. He also doesn’t think states will be able to pick up the bill.
“The states don’t have the resources to meet those additional costs without having to make really painful trade-offs, to raise revenue or cut other programs and services that low-income families rely on.”
In the wake of disasters, rural health could end up running on sunshine
By Will Atwater
When Hurricane Helene ripped through western North Carolina, it downed power lines, leaving tens of thousands of residents without electricity for days, even weeks.
Duke Energy reported “severe” infrastructure damage, including submerged substations, thousands of downed utility poles and fallen transmission towers. The company also noted that mudslides, flooding and blocked roads hampered efforts to quickly restore power.
At Duke Energy’s Marshall Substation in the town of Hot Springs, heavy rains and flooding forced the shutdown of the facility. But Hot Springs was more fortunate than most. In 2023, Duke Energy had installed a microgrid of solar panels and lithium-ion batteries to restore power quickly in case of emergency.
A microgrid is a self-contained electricity system that can operate independently of, or in coordination with, the main power grid. A common example is rooftop solar panels that supply electricity to homes, enabling residents to either disconnect from the main grid entirely or rely on it only as needed.
Hot Springs’ system, which can provide 100 percent of the town’s peak load and up to six hours of backup power, went live on Oct. 2, only five days after the storm. The microgrid operated continuously for the next 143.5 hours, providing power to the town’s center until power was restored to the area on Oct. 8.
The project, initially intended to be a proof of concept, worked to help the town get back online far ahead of its neighbors.
“It wasn’t as luxurious as a typical grid-powered home,” said Sara Nichols, energy and economic program manager for the Land of Sky Regional Council, a multi-county, local government organization. “It kept that town going when most people had nothing. It’s a huge success story.”
Hurricane Maria provides example
Rural and community health centers are a vital safety net for millions of Americans.
“As the largest primary care network in the nation, community health centers serve one in three people living in poverty — many in communities most impacted by environmental and climate hazards,” said Kyu Rhee, president and chief operating officer of the National Association of Community Health Centers, in a 2024 news release.
“Community health centers [are] not for profit organizations that receive a limited amount of federal support to provide care to anyone — [including] primary medical, dental, behavioral health, discounted Pharmacy [services] — and there in all 50 states and territories,” said Ben Money, from the association.
Money used to run the N.C. Community Health Center Association and knows the needs of this state well, including its extensive history of hurricanes disrupting power to crucial services. He pointed to Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico’s power grid in 2017, as a turning point that accelerated efforts to equip health centers with solar-powered microgrids to improve disaster recovery.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico in 2017, Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas — a nonprofit community organization — worked to diversify the energy grid by installing solar and microgrid systems across communities, providing power to homes, schools, businesses, and essential institutions. Credit: Casa Pueblo de Adjuntas
“The disaster in Puerto Rico was not the hurricane,” Massol-Deyá said. “It was the aftermath of the government’s [inability] to restore basic services and all the mismanagement of the situation.”
In the aftermath, Casa Pueblo used support from donors to help “democratize the energy grid” by installing solar and microgrid systems across communities — powering homes, schools, businesses and essential institutions.
“We have addressed health issues by building energy security,” he said, “because there’s a lot of people with chronic diseases — like high blood pressure, diabetes and respiratory issues — that require therapy and medication.”
Money echoed that point and emphasized the importance of keeping health clinics operational during and after emergencies.
“When community health centers are down, they can’t see patients,” Money said. “Those patients that need care end up going to the emergency room, where it costs an exorbitant amount of money to get something that could be delivered at a fraction of that cost at a community health center.”
“Each day a health center is closed due to a power outage puts the organization at a financial risk,” Money said, potentially leading to reduced services, staff layoffs or even permanent closure. By contrast, a solar microgrid system can lower operating costs, allowing centers to reinvest savings back into patient care and services.
The initiative targets rural health centers across the southeastern U.S., a region that experienced 474 weather-related power outages in 2022 — more than any other part of the country, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers.
The NACHC was also awarded a contract by the Department of Energy in 2024 to equip rural health clinics in North Carolina and other Southeastern states with solar microgrids. While the project is still in the planning stage, it is moving forward — despite federal funding cuts and increased scrutiny of Biden-era climate investments, Money said recently.
Advocating for microgrids
Long before Hurricane Helene battered western North Carolina, Sara Nichols had been working on ways to strengthen local power infrastructure in remote mountain locations — but she had struggled to gain traction with funders who denied multiple applications for support.
“We were working with designers and learning what projects needed — all the logistics,” said Nichols,whose organization serves four counties and 16 municipalities in western North Carolina.
Nichols said funders were hesitant to invest because the region lacked a history of major weather disasters.
“When I got a denial days after [Hurricane Helene] I was like, ‘Are you sure about that?’”
Despite being hundreds of miles from the coast and more than 2,000 feet above sea level, few expected the western North Carolina region to be so vulnerable. But Helene made one thing clear: No place is safe from severe weather.
As a result of Helene — and with the Hot Springs example in mind — Nichols and others have renewed their advocacy around communities — especially rural ones — to include microgrid technology in their resiliency planning.
“I feel like we may have better chances now being able to tie things to our hurricane relief work,” Nichols said.
‘Emerging technology’
While the microgrid in Hot Springs delivered power in the wake of Helene, Duke Energy spokesperson Logan Stewart cautioned that microgrids are still an emerging — and costly — technology. “They’re not the best solution in every situation,” she said.
“It’s kind of like a GPS in your car,” Stewart said. “If there’s an outage on your line, it’s going to just automatically reroute you to another line.
“We have [self-healing technology] integrated across about 60 percent of our grid in the Carolinas,” Sewart noted. “We’re going to continue to expand, but we have miles and miles of line, so it just takes [time] to do that.”
Stewart noted that self-healing technology is better suited for urban areas, where terrain is less of a challenge.
“Microgrids can be a solution,” she said, “but it depends on the community terrain, cost and several other factors. It’s something we’re going to continue to explore — because the performance during Helene was fantastic.”
Proposed $25M cut to bird flu aid for farmers could leave Pa. unprepared for surge, GOP lawmakers fear
BELLEFONTE — The Shapiro administration is proposing a $25 million cut to a state bird flu recovery program, arguing that its $61.5 million reserve is enough to aid Pennsylvania farmers affected by the aggressive virus.
But the move has sparked concern among some Republican lawmakers who fear the state won’t be prepared to respond to a surge in cases.
The reduction — part of Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s $51.4 billion budget pitch — targets the Department of Agriculture’s special grant program, which has reimbursed farmers for losses caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza and funded biosecurity measures to quell cases.
En Puerto Rico, la campaña de Trump para desmantelar el Departamento de Educación pega más fuerte
Maraida Caraballo Martínez es educadora en Puerto Rico desde hace 28 años y directora de la Escuela de la Comunidad Jaime C. Rodríguez desde hace siete. Nunca sabe cuánto dinero recibirá del gobierno cada año porque no se basa en el número de niños matriculados. Un año recibió 36.000 dólares; otro año, 12.000 dólares.
Pero por primera vez como educador, Caraballo notó una gran diferencia durante la administración Biden. Gracias a una inyección de fondos federales en el sistema educativo de la isla, Caraballo recibió una subvención de 250.000 dólares, una cantidad de dinero sin precedentes. La utilizó para comprar libros y ordenadores para la biblioteca, pizarras e impresoras para las aulas, reforzar el programa de robótica y construir una pista polideportiva para sus alumnos. “Esto significó una gran diferencia para la escuela”, dijo Caraballo.
Yabucoa, un pequeño pueblo del sureste de Puerto Rico, fue una de las regiones más afectadas por el huracán María en 2017. Y esta comunidad escolar, como cientos de otras en la isla, ha experimentado trastornos casi constantes desde entonces. Una serie de desastres naturales, como huracanes, terremotos, inundaciones y deslizamientos de tierra, seguidos de la pandemia de coronavirus en 2020, han golpeado la isla e interrumpido el aprendizaje. También ha habido una rotación constante de secretarios de educación locales: siete en los últimos ocho años. El sistema educativo puertorriqueño -el séptimo distrito escolar más grande de Estados Unidos- se ha vuelto más vulnerable debido a la abrumadora deuda de la isla, la emigración masiva y una red eléctrica paralizada.
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Bajo la presidencia de Joe Biden, se produjeron tímidos avances, respaldados por miles de millones de dólares y una atención personal sostenida por parte de altos funcionarios federales de educación, dijeron muchos expertos y educadores de la isla. Ahora les preocupa que todo se desmantele con el cambio en la Casa Blanca. El presidente Donald Trump no ha ocultado su desdén por el territorio estadounidense, habiendo dicho supuestamente que estaba “sucio y que la gente era pobre.” Durante su primer mandato, retuvo miles de millones de dólares en ayuda federal tras el huracán María y ha sugerido vender la isla o cambiarla por Groenlandia.
Una reciente orden ejecutiva para hacer del inglés el idioma oficial ha preocupado a los habitantes de la isla, donde solo 1 de cada 5 personas habla inglés con fluidez, y el español es el idioma de instrucción en las escuelas. Trump está tratando de eliminar el Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. y ya ha hecho recortes radicales a la agencia, lo que tendrá implicaciones en toda la isla. Incluso si los fondos federales -que el año pasado representaron más de dos tercios del financiamiento del Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico, o DEPR- se transfirieran directamente al gobierno local, probablemente traerían peores resultados para los niños más vulnerables, dicen los educadores y expertos en políticas públicas. Históricamente, el DEPR ha estado plagado de interferencias políticas, burocracia generalizada y falta de transparencia.
Maraida Caraballo Martínez ha sido educadora en Puerto Rico durante 28 años y ahora es directora de una escuela primaria. Su escuela ha estado a punto de cerrar tres veces debido a la emigración masiva de la isla. Credit: Kavitha Cardoza for The Hechinger Report
Y el departamento de educación local no está tan avanzado tecnológicamente como otros departamentos de educación estatales, ni es tan capaz de difundir las mejores prácticas. Por ejemplo, Puerto Rico no dispone de una “fórmula por alumno”, un cálculo utilizado habitualmente en el continente para determinar la cantidad de dinero que recibe cada estudiante para su educación. Roberto Mujica es el director ejecutivo de la Junta de Supervisión y Gestión Financiera de Puerto Rico, convocada por primera vez bajo la presidencia de Barack Obama en 2016 para hacer frente al marasmo financiero de la isla. Mujica dijo que la actual asignación de fondos educativos de Puerto Rico es opaca. “Cómo se distribuyen los fondos se percibe como un proceso político”, dijo. “No hay transparencia ni claridad”.
En 2021, Miguel Cardona, Secretario de Educación de Biden, prometió “un nuevo día” para Puerto Rico. “Durante demasiado tiempo, los estudiantes y educadores de Puerto Rico fueron abandonados”, dijo. Durante su mandato, Cardona aignó casi 6.000 millones de dólares federales para el sistema educativo de la isla, lo que se tradujo en un aumento salarial histórico para los profesores, financiamiento para programas de tutoría extraescolar, la contratación de cientos de profesionales de salud mental escolar y la creación de un programa piloto para descentralizar el DEPR.
Cardona designó a un asesor principal, Chris Soto, para que fuera su persona de contacto con el sistema educativo de la isla, subrayando el compromiso del gobierno federal con la isla. Durante casi cuatro años en el cargo, Soto realizó más de 50 viajes a la isla. Carlos Rodríguez Silvestre, director ejecutivo de la Fundación Flamboyán, una organización sin fines de lucro de Puerto Rico que ha dirigido los esfuerzos de alfabetización infantil en la isla, dijo que el nivel de respeto e interés sostenido hicieron sentir que se trataba de una asociación, no un mandato de arriba hacia abajo. “Nunca había visto ese tipo de atención a la educación en Puerto Rico”, afirmó. “Soto prácticamente vivía en la isla”.
Soto también trabajó estrechamente con Víctor Manuel Bonilla Sánchez, presidente del sindicato de maestros, la Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, o AMPR, lo que dio lugar a un acuerdo por el que los educadores recibieron 1.000 dólares más al mes en su salario base, un aumento de casi el 30% para el maestro promedio. “Fue el mayor aumento salarial en la historia de los maestros de Puerto Rico”, dijo Bonilla, aunque incluso con el aumento, los maestros de aquí siguen ganando mucho menos dinero que sus colegas en el continente.
Una de las mayores quejas que Soto dijo haber escuchado fue lo rígido y burocrático que era el Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico, a pesar de una ley de reforma educativa de 2018 que permite un mayor control local. La agencia de educación -la unidad de gobierno más grande de la isla, con la mayor cantidad de empleados y el mayor presupuesto- estaba configurada de manera que la oficina central tenía que aprobar todo. Así que Soto creó y supervisó un programa piloto en Ponce, una región en la costa sur de la isla, enfocado en la descentralización.
Por primera vez, la comunidad local eligió un consejo asesor de educación, y los candidatos a superintendente tuvieron que postularse en lugar de ser nombrados, dijo Soto. El superintendente recibió autoridad para aprobar directamente las solicitudes presupuestarias en lugar de enviarlas a través de funcionarios de San Juan, así como flexibilidad para gastar el dinero en su región en función de las necesidades de cada escuela.
En el pasado, eso no se tenía en cuenta: Por ejemplo, Yadira Sánchez, psicóloga que lleva más de 20 años trabajando en la educación puertorriqueña, recuerda cuando una escuela recibió docenas de aires acondicionados nuevos aunque no los necesitaba. “Ya tenían aires acondicionados que funcionaban”, dice, “así que ese dinero se perdió”.
El proyecto piloto también se centró en aumentar la eficiencia. Por ejemplo, ahora se evalúa a los niños discapacitados en sus colegios, en lugar de tener que acudir a un centro especial. Y Soto dice que también intentó eliminar el uso de influencias y aumentar la transparencia en torno al gasto en el PRDE. “Puedes mejorar las facturas, pero si tus amigos políticos son los que se quedancon los trabajos, entonces no tienes un buen sistema escolar”, dijo.
Bajo el mandato de Biden, Puerto Rico también recibió una subvención competitiva o grant del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. por valor de 10,5 millones de dólares para escuelas comunitarias, otro hito. Y el departamento federal empezó a incluir datos sobre el territorio en algunas estadísticas educativas recopiladas. “Puerto Rico ni siquiera figuraba en estos indicadores, así que empezamos a preguntarnos cómo mejorar los sistemas de datos. Desentrañar el problema de los datos significó que Puerto Rico puede ser debidamente reconocido”, dijo Soto.
Pero ya hay planes para deshacer el esfuerzo de Cardona en Ponce. La recién elegida gobernadora de la isla, Jenniffer González Colón, es republicana y partidaria de Trump. El popular secretario de Educación, Eliezer Ramos Parés, regresó a principios de este año al frente del departamento tras dirigirlo desde abril de 2021 hasta julio de 2023, cuando la gobernadora le pidió inesperadamente que dimitiera, algo nada inusual en el gobierno de la isla, donde los nombramientos políticos pueden terminar de repente y con poco debate público. Ramos dijo a The Hechinger Report que el programa no continuará en su forma actual, calificándolo de “ineficiente”.
“El programa piloto no es realmente eficaz”, dijo, señalando que la política puede influir en las decisiones de gasto no sólo a nivel central, sino también a nivel regional. “Queremos tener algunos controles”. También dijo que ampliar la iniciativa a toda la isla costaría decenas de millones de dólares. En su lugar, Ramos dijo que estaba estudiando enfoques más limitados de la descentralización, en torno a algunas funciones de recursos humanos y adquisiciones. Dijo que también estaba explorando una fórmula de financiación por alumno para Puerto Rico y estudiando las lecciones de otros grandes distritos escolares como la ciudad de Nueva York y Hawai.
Un autobús escolar bajo un árbol que cayó durante el huracán María, que azotó la isla de Puerto Rico en septiembre de 2017. Más de un año después, no había sido retirado. Credit: Al Bello/Getty Images for Lumix
El Departamento de Educación de EE.UU., que complementa la financiación local y estatal para los estudiantes en situación de pobreza y con discapacidades, tiene un papel desproporcionado en las escuelas de Puerto Rico. En la isla, el 55% de los niños viven por debajo del umbral de la pobreza, frente al 17% en los 50 estados; en el caso de los estudiantes de educación especial, las cifras son del 35% y el 15%, respectivamente. En total, durante el año fiscal 2024, más del 68 por ciento del presupuesto de educación en la isla procede de fondos federales, frente al 11 por ciento en los estados de EE UU. El departamento también administra las becas Pell para estudiantes de bajos ingresos -alrededor del 72 por ciento de los estudiantes puertorriqueños las solicitan- y apoya los esfuerzos de desarrollo profesional y las iniciativas para los niños puertorriqueños que van y vienen entre el continente y el territorio.
Linda McMahon, la nueva secretaria de Educación de Trump, ha dicho supuestamente que el Gobierno seguirá cumpliendo sus “obligaciones legales” con los estudiantes aunque el departamento cierre o transfiera algunas operaciones y despida personal. El Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos no respondió a las solicitudes de comentarios para esta historia.
Algunos dicen que el hecho de que la administración Biden haya vertido miles de millones de dólares en un sistema educativo en problemas con escasa rendición de cuentas ha creado expectativas poco realistas y no hay un plan para lo que ocurre después de que se gasta el dinero. Mujica, director ejecutivo de la junta de supervisión, dijo que la infusión de fondos pospuso la toma de decisiones difíciles por parte del gobierno puertorriqueño. “Cuando se tiene tanto dinero, se tapan muchos problemas. No tienes que enfrentarte a algunos de los retos que son fundamentales para el sistema”. Y afirmó que apenas se habla de lo que ocurrirá cuando se acabe ese dinero. “¿Cómo se va a llenar ese vacío? O desaparecen esos programas o tendremos que encontrar la financiación para ellos”, dijo Mujica.
Dijo que esfuerzos como el de Ponce para acercar la toma de decisiones a donde están las necesidades de los estudiantes es “de vital importancia”. Aún así, dijo que no está seguro de que el dinero haya mejorado los resultados de los estudiantes. “Esta era una gran oportunidad para hacer cambios fundamentales e inversiones que produzcan resultados a largo plazo. No estoy seguro de que hayamos visto las métricas que lo respalden”.
Puerto Rico es una de las regiones más empobrecidas desde el punto de vista educativo, con unos resultados académicos muy inferiores a los del continente. En la parte de matemáticas de la Evaluación Nacional de Progreso Educativo, o NAEP, una prueba que realizan los estudiantes de todo EE.UU., sólo el 2% de los alumnos de cuarto curso de Puerto Rico calificaron como competentes, la puntuación más alta jamás registrada en la isla, y el 0% de los alumnos de octavo curso lo fueron. Los estudiantes puertorriqueños no hacen la prueba NAEP de lectura porque aprenden en español, no en inglés, aunque los resultados compartidos por Ramos en una conferencia de prensa en 2022 mostraron que sólo el 1% de los estudiantes de tercer grado leían a nivel de grado.
Hay algunos esfuerzos alentadores. La Fundación Flamboyán ha liderado una coalición de 70 socios en toda la isla para mejorar la alfabetización de los niños de preescolar a tercer grado, entre otras cosas mediante el desarrollo profesional. La formación del profesorado a través del departamento de educación del territorio ha sido a menudo irregular u opcional.
La organización trabaja ahora en estrecha colaboración con la Universidad de Puerto Rico y, como parte de ese esfuerzo, supervisa el gasto de 3 millones de dólares en formación para la alfabetización. Aproximadamente 1.500 profesores de Puerto Rico (un tercio de los maestros de Kinder a 5º grado) han recibido esta rigurosa formación. Los educadores recibieron 500 dólares como incentivo por participar, además de libros para sus aulas y tres horas de formación continua. “Fueron muchas horas de calidad. No ha sido el método de ‘rociar (con un poco de agua) y rezar’”, dijo Silvestre. Ese esfuerzo continuará, según Ramos, que lo calificó de “muy eficaz”.
Una nueva prueba de lectura para alumnos de primero a tercer grado que la organización sin fines de lucro ayudó a diseñar mostró que entre los años escolares 2023 y 2024, la mayoría de los niños estaban por debajo del nivel del grado, pero hubo avances en los resultados en todos los grados. “Pero aún nos queda un largo camino por recorrer para que estos datos lleguen a los profesores a tiempo y de forma que puedan actuar en consecuencia”, dijo Silvestre.
Kristin Ehrgood, Directora General de la Fundación Flamboyán, afirma que es demasiado pronto para ver resultados espectaculares. “Es realmente difícil ver una tonelada de resultados positivos en un período tan corto de tiempo con la desconfianza significativa que se ha construido durante años”, dijo. Dijo que no estaban seguros de cómo la administración Trump podría trabajar o financiar el sistema educativo de Puerto Rico, pero que la administración Biden había construido una gran cantidad de buena voluntad. “Hay muchas oportunidades que podrían aprovecharse, si una nueva administración decide hacerlo”.
Otra señal esperanzadora es que la junta de supervisión, que fue muy protestada cuando se formó, ha reducido la deuda de la isla de 73.000 a 31.000 millones de dólares. Y el año pasado los miembros de la junta aumentaron el gasto en educación en un 3%. Mujica dijo que la junta se centra en asegurarse de que cualquier inversión se traduzca en mejores resultados para los estudiantes: “Nuestra opinión es que los recursos tienen que ir a las aulas”.
Betty A. Rosa, comisionada de educación y presidente de la Universidad del Estado de Nueva York y miembro de la Junta de Supervisión, afirmó que la inestabilidad educativa en Puerto Rico se debe a los cambios en el liderazgo. Cada nuevo líder se dedica a “reconstruir, reestructurar, reimaginar, elija la palabra que elija”, dijo. “No hay coherencia”. A diferencia de su cargo en el estado de Nueva York, el Secretario de Educación de Puerto Rico y otros cargos son nombramientos políticos. “Si tienes un gobierno permanente, aunque cambie el liderazgo, el trabajo continúa”.
Ramos, que vivió esta inestabilidad cuando el anterior gobernador pidió inesperadamente su dimisión en 2023, dijo que se reunió con McMahon, la nueva secretaria de Educación de EE.UU., en Washington, D.C., y que mantuvieron una “agradable conversación”. “Ella sabe de Puerto Rico, se preocupa por Puerto Rico y demostró total apoyo en la misión de Puerto Rico”, dijo. Dijo que McMahon quería que el DEPR ofreciera más clases bilingües, para exponer a más estudiantes al inglés. Queda por ver si habrá cambios en la otorgación de fondos o cualquier otra cosa. “Tenemos que ver lo que ocurre en las próximas semanas y meses y cómo esa visión y esa política podrían afectar a Puerto Rico”, dijo Ramos.
La Escuela de la Comunidad Jaime C. Rodríguez es una escuela Montessori de Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, que carecía de instalaciones deportivas para sus alumnos. Recientemente comenzó las obras de un centro deportivo polivalente gracias a los fondos federales otorgados por la administración del presidente Biden. Credit: Kavitha Cardoza for The Hechinger Report
Ramos fue muy apreciado por los educadores durante su primera etapa como Secretario de Educación. También tendrá que tomar muchas decisiones, como ampliar las escuelas charter y cerrar las escuelas públicas tradicionales, ya que la matriculación en las escuelas públicas de la isla sigue disminuyendo vertiginosamente. En el pasado, ambas cuestiones provocaron protestas feroces y generalizadas.
Soto es realista y cree que la nueva administración tendrá “puntos de vista diferentes, tanto ideológica como políticamente”, pero confía en que el pueblo de Puerto Rico no quiera volver a la antigua forma de hacer las cosas. “Alguien dijo: ‘Ustedes sacaron al genio de la botella y va a ser difícil volver a ponerlo’ en lo que se refiere a un sistema escolar centrado en el estudiante”, dijo Soto.
Cardona, cuyos abuelos son oriundos de la isla, dijo que Puerto Rico había experimentado un “estancamiento académico” durante años. “No podemos aceptar que los estudiantes rindan menos de lo que sabemos que son capaces”, dijo a The Hechinger Report, justo antes de despedirse como máximo responsable de educación del país. “Empezamos el cambio; tiene que continuar.
La pequeña escuela de la directora Carabello, con 150 alumnos y 14 profesores, ha estado a punto de cerrarse ya tres veces, aunque en todas ellas se ha salvado en parte gracias al apoyo de la comunidad. Carabello confía en que Ramos, con quien ya ha trabajado anteriormente, cambie las cosas. “Conoce el sistema educativo”, afirma. “Es una persona brillante, abierta a escuchar”.
Pero las largas jornadas de los últimos años le han pasado factura. Suele estar en la escuela de 6:30 a.m. a 6:30 p.m. “Entras cuando anochece y te vas cuando anochece”, dice. Ha habido muchas plataformas nuevas que aprender y nuevos proyectos que poner en marcha. Quiere jubilarse, pero no puede permitírselo. Tras décadas en las que el gobierno local no financió suficientemente el sistema de pensiones, se recortaron los subsidios que compensaban el alto precio de los bienes y servicios en la isla y se congelaron los planes de pensiones.
Ahora, en lugar de jubilarse con el 75% de su salario, Carabello recibirá sólo el 50%, 2.195 dólares al mes. Tiene derecho a prestaciones de la Seguridad Social, pero no son suficientes para compensar la pensión perdida. “¿Quién puede vivir con 2.000 dólares en un mes? Nadie. Es demasiado duro. Y mi casa aún necesita 12 años más para pagarse”.
A Carabello, siempre tan fuerte y optimista con sus alumnos, se le saltaron las lágrimas. Pero es raro que se permita tiempo para pensar en sí misma. “Tengo una gran comunidad. Tengo grandes profesores y me siento feliz con lo que hago”, afirma.
Feds plan to remove all wild horses from 2.1M acres of Wyoming’s ‘checkerboard’ starting in July
The Bureau of Land Management’s contentious plans to remove all free-roaming horses from vast reaches of southwest Wyoming’s “checkerboard” region could begin as soon as this summer, although a legal appeal to stop roundups remains in limbo.
On Monday, the federal agency released a 47-page environmental assessment outlining plans to gather and permanently remove several thousand wild horses from 2,105 square miles — an area nearly the size of Delaware — managed by BLM’s Rock Springs and Rawlins field offices. Horses would come off an additional 1,124 square miles of private land within the checkerboard. A public review period is underway with comments due by April 30. If the BLM greenlights the round-ups, they could begin within the next three months and continue for a couple of years, possibly longer.
First to go would be the estimated 1,125 free-roaming horses in the Salt Wells Creek herd and 736 animals in the northwestern portion of Adobe Town, according to BLM Rock Springs Field Office Manager Kimberlee Foster. Then in 2026, horse-removal crews would move on to eliminating an estimated 894 horses in the Great Divide Basin herd.
“Additional gathers may be needed in future years to remove all wild horses to get to the zero-population goal, as some may be missed during the scheduled gathers,” Foster told WyoFile in response to emailed questions.
Over the course of 2025 and 2026, the Bureau of Land Management is planning to fully remove roaming horses from herd management areas illustrated in this map. (BLM)
Free-roaming horses, a nonnative species that faces scant predation, increase in population by about 20% annually. Reproduction, combined with missed animals during surveys, make estimating precise herd numbers difficult. The expectation is that 3,371 wild horses would be removed, but the ultimate number could range from 2,500 up to 5,000, according to the BLM.
The push to rid southwest Wyoming’s checkerboard region of free-roaming horses traces back 15 years. The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act directs the BLM to “to remove stray wild horses from private lands as soon as practicable upon receipt of a written request,” the environmental assessment states. In 2010, the cattle and sheep-centric Rock Springs Grazing Association, which owns and leases about 1.1 million acres of private land in the checkerboard, revoked consent to allow horses to roam on its property.
Black Hawk, Colorado resident Bill Carter documents a wild horse roundup in the Bureau of Land Management’s White Mountain Horse Management Area in August 2024. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
Soon thereafter, a coalition of pro-horse petitioners — the American Wild Horse Campaign, Animal Welfare Institute, Western Watersheds Project, Carol Walker, Kimerlee Curyl and Chad Hanson — appealed.
“This is just the latest lawsuit in a 12 or more year battle to save these horses,” American Wild Horse Executive Director Suzanne Roy told WyoFile. “We’ve litigated four or five times about this issue.”
Three wild horses graze alongside U.S. Highway 191 during a snowstorm in spring 2023. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
Attorneys for the federal government and horse advocacy groups exchanged arguments before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in March. A decision is pending, but horse advocates are optimistic about their chances.
“We have prevailed in the 10th Circuit previously on this issue,” Roy said.
The BLM, she contended, has never before fully eliminated a herd of free-roaming horses without having demonstrated there are ecological reasons for doing so.
“This would be the first time in the 54-year history of the Wild Horse and Burros Act that the BLM eliminated a herd management area and eradicated entire wild horse herds — two of them — when the agency itself concedes that the area has sufficient habitat for the horses,” Roy said. “It has implications for wild horse protection across the West, because if private landowners that have land adjacent to or within herd management areas are allowed to dictate the presence of wild horses on the public land, that’s a very dangerous precedent. So we are anxiously awaiting the court’s ruling.”
Meanwhile, the BLM is staging resources necessary to move forward with its plans. The Adobe Town/Salt Wells Creek herd roundup is the largest on the BLM’s tentative wild horse and burro gather schedule for 2025. It’s scheduled to take place from July 15 through Sept. 15. In regions of the Adobe Town herd area where horses are being allowed to persist, there are related plans to remove 2,179 free-roaming horses — numbers that exceed the “appropriate management level.”
It’s unclear how or if the Trump administration’s slashing of the federal government workforce will impact the horse gather operations. Asked by WyoFile if the BLM-Wyoming’s horse and burro program is fully staffed right now, Foster, the field office manager, wrote “BLM is prepared to conduct the planned gathers with current staffing.”
‘Spinning our wheels’: As West Virginia’s housing crisis worsens, lawmakers put solutions on the back burner
Less than a two-hour drive from the nation’s capital, Berkeley County has become the epicenter of West Virginia’s housing crisis as its population booms.
Rising home values and increasing rent prices have made it harder for families to keep a roof over their heads.
English teacher Jennifer Unger lives in Martinsburg but recently started teaching across the state line in Maryland. She said she needed higher pay to keep up with the rising cost of living in the area as she’s looking to downsize her home after her divorce.
“The rent for a decent apartment is higher than the mortgage I’m paying now for a three-bedroom house,” she said. “An average two-bedroom apartment is at least $1,500 a month here.”
And Unger isn’t the only one concerned about housing costs. Across the state, many West Virginians are grappling with rising rents and a housing market that has priced out lower-income residents.
While counties like Berkeley and Jefferson are experiencing rapid growth, driving up housing costs, others like Tucker and Pocahontas counties are dealing with a surge in short-term rentals, limiting options for West Virginians struggling to find affordable housing.
Despite those challenges, lawmakers have put the state’s housing crisis on the back burner this session and have not prioritized legislation to address affordability and supply issues.
In fact, the only housing-related bills that have moved between the chambers target the state’s homeless population by banning public camping and preventing squatting, the act of living in a home without an owner’s permission.
And the deadline to introduce new bills has already passed the House and the Senate.
Heather Schneider, founder of the Appalachian Mutual Aid Collective in Upshur County, said lawmakers are to blame for the state’s housing problems and should be working to solve them by raising the minimum wage and supporting social services.
“Part of the issue here is that the systems that we have in place oftentimes are creating the problems, and it’s self-perpetuating,” Schneider said.
Lawmakers are still waiting for policy recommendations
On March 19, lawmakers heard from state housing experts for the first time this session during a House Economic Development Committee meeting.
Nate Testman, Interim Director of the West Virginia Housing Development Fund, an agency which provides housing assistance to low-income residents. Courtesy photo
Nate Testman, interim director of the state’s Housing Development Fund, told lawmakers he’s working with WVU researchers on a housing survey that will be completed this month.
Preliminary data shows that nearly 150,000 West Virginia households are considered “housing overburdened,” meaning they spend more than a third of their income on housing.
That includes 49% of renters and 20% of homeowners — an increase from 2015, when those numbers were 37% and 14%.
Families who pay more for housing have less money to spend on essential needs like healthcare, food and other bills. The financial strain can impact mental health and well-being.
Testman said the state’s housing crisis stems from high rent and home costs, a lack of supply of affordable housing and a growing inventory of dilapidated homes.
“In the Eastern Panhandle, housing prices have surged,” he said. “Working families are struggling to keep up as they compete with high-end buyers from D.C.”
Committee chairman, Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral, asked whether the organization looked at housing data from nearby states like Maryland. He said many West Virginians lived along bordering states.
“Our tax structure is much better than Maryland, so the people that are moving are wanting to live on our side of the river,” he said. “That’s good for us but bad for the housing shortage.”
Del. Gary Howell, R-Mineral, speaks to the House Economic Development Committee on March 5, 2025. Photo by Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislature
He declined an interview request about the meeting and the committee’s priorities. His Senate counterpart, Glenn Jeffries, R-Putnam, said he hopes more housing bills come through next year.
“My focus has been on microgrids,” he said. “Building microgrids will be a capital investment and spur economic growth.”
Jeffries also pointed to a bill he’s sponsoring this session that would help subsidize worker housing development projects for businesses by issuing loans covering up to 50% of project costs.
The bill advanced to the Senate Finance Committee but has not appeared on the agenda. It’s unlikely to pass before crossover day, a key legislative deadline where all bills must be moved out of each chamber tomorrow.
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, asked what the WVHDF did with the information as the organization completes statewide housing surveys every five years.
“It feels like there’s just a lot of people doing this kind of work, and we’re just kind of spinning our wheels,” she said.
Supply, demand and the post-pandemic market
Since at least 2013, median home values and rent prices have increased annually, according to housing data from the U.S. Census.
In 2020, the pandemic exacerbated the housing crisis nationwide. A combination of supply chain disruptions made building materials more expensive, while low interest rates and remote work increased housing demand.
“We didn’t know what the future of the real estate industry was going to look like,” said Del. Patrick Lucas, R-Cabell, a real estate broker in Huntington.
He also said the state’s housing supply has dwindled as developers struggle to afford materials like lumber.
To help offset the cost of materials and to encourage more construction, lawmakers passed the Build WV Act, which created a housing development tax credit in 2022. Development projects that qualify receive a sales tax exemption for building materials.
Developers like Terrell McSweeney Burns, who has tried to build properties in Pocahontas County, told Mountain State Spotlight that she needed more state support outside of tax credits last year.
Home values and rent prices were already rising before the pandemic but grew rapidly as the housing market changed overnight.
Shari Stephens, director of the Hardy County Family Support Center, said home values in the Moorefield area have risen significantly over the past five years, while fewer houses are on the market.
“Prices for houses that are move-in ready are too expensive for young families in our area,” she said. “We definitely need areas of improvement for affordable housing.”
Director Shari Stephens sits in her office at the Hardy County Family Support Center in Moorefield, W.Va. Photo by Tre Spencer / Mountain State Spotlight
As housing costs rise and rents become more expensive, homeless populations grow, especially in urban areas, according to Pew Research.
Last year, the Department of Human Services reported that 1,400 people were homeless in West Virginia, an uptick of 24% since 2021.
Stephens said that as home values increased in Hardy County, so has the county’s homeless population.
“There’s no shelters in the county, so we’ve had to send folks to the panhandle,” she said. “Homeless people around here have been trying to find places to live for years.”
