Two San Diego nonprofits have been left hanging by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for months, unable to withdraw millions in contractually obligated funds and not told why.

Now it appears all the grants are set to be terminated, killing one of the San Diego projects and forcing the other to cut back.

“We had an agreement. We had a contract that was approved by Congress, and it feels like those things don’t matter anymore,” said Lisa Cuestas, president and CEO of Casa Familiar, a nonprofit in San Ysidro that expected to use the grant to address poor air quality. “It feels like (environmental justice) and communities of color are being targeted.”

Casa Familiar is among 15 California organizations that received a Community Change Grant from the EPA during the Biden administration. The other San Diego recipient was a project from the San Diego Foundation and the Environmental Health Coalition.

An internal EPA list published in a press release by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works includes all of Califorrnia’s Community Change grants among the 400 grants designated for cancellation.

Each of these grants have one thing in common: the term “environmental justice” is used in the program title.

Casa Familiar was set to receive $12.7 million for its Healthy Borders Community Change Project. The nonprofit was to provide the predominantly Latino community with low-cost, zero-emission transportation options such as e-bikes, electric vehicle car shares and shuttles. The funds also would have paid for indoor air monitors and purifiers for 1,000 low-income households and energy efficient upgrades for at least 15 residences, as well as created over 20 jobs.

It can’t move forward without grant funding, Cuestas said.

San Diego Foundation and Environmental Health Coalition are working on their “Rooted in Comunidad, Cultivating Equity” project, an ongoing effort to improve air quality, mitigate extreme heat and expand green space in Barrio Logan and other South Bay neighborhoods, which also experience high levels of asthma and pollution.

In March 2024, the two organizations partnered to apply for a Community Change grant and were awarded nearly $20 million. They planned to use the money to expand a free micro-transit shuttle service and electrify regional buses. It also would be used to electrify homes, install air filters, provide weatherization upgrades and create job opportunities for electrical and construction work.

However, Amy Castañeda, Environmental Health Coalition policy co-director of land and justice, said the funding has been suspended twice since President Donald Trump took office. The funds have remained frozen since the second suspension, which the coalition noticed on March 7.

The San Diego organizations have received little to no communication from the EPA. According to Castañeda, agency officials have cancelled or not shown up to multiple monthly check-in meetings with San Diego Foundation and Environmental Health Coalition.

“These investments are years, decades in the making. And to say we were so close, we had the money, and now it’s being taken from us, that hurts on a deeper level,” Castañeda said.

San Diego Foundation was only able to draw down a little over $3,000 to cover part of an employee’s salary. It has not received an official notice of termination for the grants.

In an internal email sent to EPA staff, which was released by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the agency’s general counsel office stated that “no decision to retract the terminations is forthcoming.” The email said recipients would have to go through the dispute process or sue the EPA to have any chance of their grants being reinstated.

Asked in an email to confirm the termination of California Community Change grants and explain its reasoning for doing so, the EPA press office replied, “The agency is continuing to review grants awarded under the Community Change Grant program to ensure each grant is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with Administration priorities. At this time, EPA is not awarding any additional Community Change Grant funding.”

The press office did not respond to KPBS’ follow up question about what “additional” funding means.

Because the Rooted in Comunidad project received a $22 million grant from the California Strategic Growth Council in 2023, Castañeda said losing the Community Change grant would not kill the entire project. However, it would significantly reduce services the organizations could provide and cancel some aspects of the project.

Of the 400 grants set to be terminated by the EPA, Castañeda said her group is losing money from four. The cut to its federal grants equals about $40,000 a month. Castañeda said Environmental Health Coalition is having to consider staff layoffs and furloughs.

“It’s really heartbreaking as an organization to have those conversations. But I think beyond that, it’s also heartbreaking to have these conversations with our community members,” she said.

California was the largest recipient of the Community Change Grant Program — known officially as the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program — receiving over $216 million in funding.

Beyond the Community Change program, another 48 grants awarded across several different programs were put on the termination list, amounting to a loss of nearly $300 million in funding for state projects.

Casa Familiar applied for the grant to address serious pollution levels in San Ysidro, home to three major freeways. With high levels of traffic and vehicles idling at the Mexican border for several hours a day, CalEnviroscreen shows that the community has some of the worst air pollution and asthma rates in the state. That’s not surprising, since close to 15 million cars passed through the San Ysidro Port of Entry last year, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Cuestas said Casa Familiar has received zero communication from the EPA regarding the status of its Community Change grant. But a few weeks ago, the organization received a termination notice for another EPA grant — $500,000 awarded last April in an Environmental Justice Community Problem Solving grant, most of which had been spent. Roughly $150,000 of obligated funding, however, was left when the grant was canceled.

Casa Familiar has lost about $200,000 in funding through various federal agreements and contracts so far, Cuestas said. An official termination of the Community Change grant would bring that total to nearly $13 million.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to take for us to find those kinds of opportunities again for San Ysidro,” Cuestas said.

‘An abuse of power’

In an open letter published in Environmental Health News, current and former EPA staff said despite court orders to unfreeze billions of funds, the Trump administration has continued to withhold “critical money” from the communities who need it most.

“It is a waste of taxpayer dollars for the U.S. Government to cancel its agreements with grantees and contractors. It is fraud for the U.S. Government to delay payments for services already received. And it is an abuse of power for the Trump administration to block the IRA laws that were mandated by Congress,” they wrote.

While community organizations and local governments explore ways to challenge the freezes, Senate Democrats are pushing for accountability.

California U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, demanded the agency immediately reverse grant terminations, stating in a March 25 letter to EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, that the EPA knowingly violated its own contracts.

“EPA’s unlawful, arbitrary and capricious terminations of EJ grant programs eliminate commonsense, nonpartisan federal programs that clean the air and water and protect Americans from natural disasters,” the senators wrote.

The situation is starting to feel like a Catch-22 for Cuestas. Casa Familiar can’t tap the promised funds, so it can’t meet the terms of a grant that the EPA hasn’t acknowledged is set for termination.

“Because there’s no way for us to draw down funds, it feels like we’re being pigeonholed into a space where it’s impossible to be successful,” she said. “It just feels like we’re being set up to fail.”