Federal budget cuts proposed for fiscal year 2026 could handicap the ability of LaGrange-based nonprofit BEDS Plus to provide vital services to people experiencing homelessness, leaders said.
“Our safety net is a really delicate woven net, if you will, made out of thin threads. If one thread gets pulled, it frays all the rest of it. People are going to have to make choices on where their dollars are going to go personally, and it could potentially lead to more people being homeless and experiencing homelessness,” said Terri Rivera, the organization’s chief advancement officer.
President Donald Trump’s budget request to Congress for fiscal year 2026, released in May, describes a 44% cut to funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. That includes a 43% reduction to programs that provide rental assistance to more than 9 million Americans, Stateline reported.
If the budget is approved as requested, more than $26.7 billion would be slashed from the five largest rental assistance programs operated by the federal government, and much of the aid they provide would be consolidated into state-level block grants.
Of BEDS’ $14 million budget, about 25% comes from federal sources, Rivera said, meaning up to $3.5 million could be at risk.
“Private funding is going to be more important than ever to help us fill those gaps and keep our programs intact,” Rivera said.
Those programs include providing short-, medium- and long-term housing through partnerships with shelters and other organizations, like the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services and the Housing Authority of Cook County. Clients work directly with case managers to deal with the causes and effects of homelessness and receive custom care.
BEDS also operates a low-barrier walk-in center at 7666 W. 63rd St. in Summit. From noon to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, people who are homeless can receive immediate assistance.
“Anybody in need can literally go there. They will get a lunch, they will talk to a human about what is going on, and they will start the process to help them figure out what they qualify for, whether it’s shelter or other benefits,” Rivera said. “In July, they had 953 interactions at that walk-in center alone. The need is huge. There’s a waitlist for shelter, so we’re always trying to help people take their next steps.”
Erin Molek, a development manager at BEDS, said she wants to dispel the myth that people experiencing homelessness aren’t working to better their situations.
“The large majority of our clients are employed, but they are living paycheck to paycheck, and, historically, rents have increased, and income has not. One crisis … puts someone at risk of losing not only their housing but making choices between health, food and having a roof over your head,” Molek said. “We’re seeing numbers increasing, almost doubling, in the last two and a half years of people just trying to stay afloat.”
“Our agency is facing cuts, and then we’re going to see a higher demand, too,” Rivera added. “We served almost 6,000 people last fiscal year, so that’s either people directly enrolled in our programs or referred for other programs and services that they qualify for. We know that when people have to make those personal choices — let’s say their SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits get cut — they’re going to have to spend more on groceries, which means, maybe, they would put off paying rent or not be able to pay their rent.”
Brookfield’s Share Food Share Love food pantry is facing a similar conundrum amid cuts to food stamps and Medicaid, John Dumas, its executive administrator, told the Landmark in July.
Molek said new limits on who receives rental assistance, including a proposed two-year cap on assistance for able-bodied adults, could lead to “potentially 60,000” Americans losing access to the Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly known as Section 8, which caps housing costs for voucher recipients at 30% of their adjusted income.
“For housing to be affordable for all of us, you’re only supposed to spend 30% of your income on your housing,” Rivera said.
People who make $15 per hour — the minimum wage in Chicago and Cook County, more than double the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 — and work 40 hours per week every week earn about $2,400 per month, she said.
“The market rate apartment rent in the Chicagoland area right now is $2,400 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. It’s not sustainable. Nobody can spend 100% of their income on housing,” she said. “If they lose the housing vouchers, they’re going to have to put more income towards their housing, whether it’s at BEDS or in an apartment outside of BEDS, and that’s not going to be sustainable, so they’re probably going to lose their housing, and they’re going to literally be back homeless again.”
While the impact of the proposed cuts could be disastrous for BEDS, Molek said the pressure has energized her to keep helping people in creative ways.
Paraphrasing the 1984 sci-fi romance movie “Starman,” she said, “What’s so amazing about humans is when things are at their worst, you are at your best. I’ve found, through COVID and through the work that we’ve always done here, when things are at their worst, it shows, really, the best of people, and that’s what I’m banking on, personally.”
Molek said she focuses on the joy and thankfulness of BEDS’ clients to avoid falling into a negative head space about the future.
Rivera said she has a similar philosophy.
“The community is who helped create BEDS Plus in the first place, and they’ve been generous supporters of our mission for almost 40 years now,” she said. “I have faith that will continue.”
Correction, Aug. 14, 2025, 12:20 p.m.: A previous version of this story misstated that 3,200 BEDS Plus serves could lose access to Section 8 vouchers. That number is the total of households BEDS serves across many programs. The Landmark apologizes for the error.
