FEMA cancels grant funding for storm shelter

In 2024, FEMA awarded Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s application for a grant to build a community storm shelter. In mid-April, CPN received notice that the program that funded those grants was being terminated.

FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program offered competitive grants to allow “tribal, state and local governments to construct infrastructure projects to reduce the hazard risks associated with natural disasters,” Jeremy Arnette, director of CPN’s Office of Self-Governance, said. “It was one of the few grant programs that supported the construction of medium and large-sized storm shelters.”

CPN went through several rounds of application review throughout 2023 before being awarded the grant in late June 2024.

The plan was to use the grant money for a community storm shelter at Citizen Place II, where a multi-phase construction project is underway to add 66 additional affordable rent units.

The shelter, Arnette said, will be located within walking distance of most of the homes, with parking and accommodations for seniors, and is expected to hold up to 205 neighborhood residents.

“Federal funds awarded for the project totaled $413,188, and the project was approved for completion by June of 2027,” Arnette said.

Unfortunately, in early April, CPN received word that FEMA was terminating the BRIC program and cancelling all awards from 2020-2023.

“CPN’s BRIC application was for fiscal year 2022. The initial application was submitted in January of 2023, so the Nation was caught in the wave of cancellations even though the award was less than a year old,” Arnette explained.

Still, he waited for official word on whether tribal governments would be affected.

“I was holding out a small amount of hope that there would be an exception for tribal projects, but that will not be the case,” Arnette said.

In mid-April, an advisory update clarified which awards were being cancelled, confirming that CPN was among the many tribes that would be losing BRIC funding.

After a Zoom call with FEMA Region 6 administrator and his staff, who assist with all FEMA-tribal programs, it was reiterated that “the BRIC program was ending for all grantees, that the current year open competition would end without making awards, and that the decision of the Trump administration was unlikely to be rescinded,” Arnette said.

He added that the Tribe is still awaiting an award termination notice specific to CPN’s BRIC award, though it is clear it will be coming.

CPN Housing Department Director Scott George said they will still need to build the shelter so residents are protected from the threat of a tornado.

“This will delay the building process and cost us more money later,” he said, adding that they are also waiting on the current White House administration to release NAHASDA (Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act) funding, which is administratively tied up at HUD even though a federal continuing resolution passed in March authorized the funding.

For more information on the housing project at Citizen Place II, go to cpn.news/newhousingproject.