OCCAC grant stalled as federal funding freeze continues

Rena Shawver is Executive Director of the Okanogan County Community Action Council.

OKANOGAN – A federal funding freeze has stalled a $20 million EPA grant intended for the Okanogan County Community Action Council (OCCAC), with no updates more than a month after the halt was announced on Jan. 27.

A fact sheet released during the last week of February by OCCAC said the EPA was working with the nonprofit for the funds when the freeze occurred.

“OCCAC has not heard from the EPA since Jan. 24, when substantive communications with EPA staff stopped,” the fact sheet said.

The $20 million was part of a larger $40 million federal package championed by Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, announced in a Dec. 12, 2024, media release from Murray’s office. The funds were to be shared between OCCAC and the Yakama Nation. However, on Jan. 24, substantive communications between OCCAC and the EPA stopped, and the freeze was announced days later.

Murray (D-WA) serves as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Cantwell (D-WA) heads the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The media release said the money is part of nearly $40 million divided between the OCCAC and the Yakama Nation.

When contacted by The Quad early last January about its largest-ever grant, OCCAC Executive Director Rena Shawver confirmed the media release from Murray’s office. Then, with what proved later to be prescient caution, Shawver added that the actual funds had not yet been received by her nonprofit, so she deferred further comment until such time as that occurred. Later that month, the freeze was announced.

Without the grant, OCCAC warns that essential services—ranging from food assistance to affordable housing—could face severe setbacks. The nonprofit remains hopeful the funds will be restored but acknowledges the risk of losing critical community resources, including:

• Expanded services to develop affordable housing.
• Three daycare classrooms for children.
• Home repair, weatherization, and residential solar services.
• Disaster relief for first responders and displaced residents.
• Event and classroom space for job training, education, and community use.
• Support for victims of domestic abuse, those without housing, veterans and their families, and other vulnerable residents.

Between 2022 and 2025, OCCAC has provided $9 million in emergency food assistance, $3.5 million in housing aid, and $3 million in veterans’ services. Additional programs include $1.7 million for low-income energy assistance, $1.5 million for home weatherization, and $450,000 from the Community Service Block Grant.

Before it closed its doors last August, the Pateros Brewster Community Resource Center worked with OCCEC and provided it with south county office space where low-income families received food, rental, and utility assistance.

Okanogan County’s poverty rate exceeds 20 percent—twice the state average—with 30 percent of households relying on OCCAC services. The funding freeze puts critical resources for these residents at risk.

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media