One of President Donald Trump’s latest executive order dismantles the only federal agency focused on ending and preventing homelessness.  But officials say this won’t impact funding or local efforts to reduce homelessness on Guam.

Trump is dismantling the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, after DOGE deemed it “unnecessary”, along with six other agencies.  The nonpartisan independent agency authorized by Congress is the only federal agency solely focused on preventing and ending homelessness.

It brings together 19 other agencies to coordinate the federal response at the state and local level, to include Guam. The Guam Interagency Council on Homelessness unites government agencies, non-profit organizations and community stakeholders to combat homelessness.  But Department of Public Health and Social Services director Theresa Arriola says she has not gotten any indication Trump’s latest executive order will have an impact here. 

"Everyday I monitor, everyday the chief of the division knows to let me know if they’ve heard from our federal counterparts or their programs. I have not gotten anything since the administration came in. So we’ve been blessed that much," Arriola told KUAM News.

Following budget cuts last term, the Office of Homelessness and Poverty Prevention was officially transferred over to Public Health in January.  It’s now called the Division of Homelessness and Poverty Prevention (DHAPP). 

She says the president’s directive won’t impact us locally, as the division is primarily locally-funded. She continued, "We do have one program that is federally funded, which is the Mawar recovery program that ends in May anyway this year. We do have the TEFAP program that used to be run and administered by the Department of Education, and that’s food commodities. That has been transferred over to the Division of Homelessness of Poverty Prevention now at Public Health."

Arriola adds DHAPP has not gotten notice of any changes to their funding for this year or next year, explaining, "The Guam legislature last year gave Public Health $500,000 to address homelessness, shelters, food, or additional needs for the homeless."

Rather, the division is ramping up investments for homeless shelters.  She says DHAPP signed an agreement with the Guam Housing Corporation to rent several homes for emergency transitional living. 

"For people who need that emergency place to get a temporary place until they can find that permanent place, because they might be people holding a voucher on GHURA but we need to help them find a rental place or apartment," she said. "Like one of the homes is specific to reentry. In other words, men who have gone through the recovery program in prison and they are being released and they have no place to go back to other than the home or environment they came from that led them to their drug addiction."

This program will be rolling out in the next couple of months.

Also in the works is the Anigua Apartment Shelter, which has been facing hiccups during renovations since the administration purchased the building in 2022, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.  "There’s going to be a place for women and children reunification. This is for children in the Child Protective Service system and women in recovery and in jeopardy of being homeless or are homeless," Arriola said.

The Guam Homeless Coalition’s annual Point-In-Time Count shows homelessness is on the rise with 1,249 people experiencing homelessness on Guam in 2024 - an increase from 1,075 in 2023.