Baltimore will spend nearly $4.7 million to help residents impacted by the federal government shutdown, Mayor Brandon Scott announced Tuesday.
“This funding will help residents put food on the table, pay rent and cover childcare, and will support hospital-based violence responders whose institutions depend on federal support to provide life-saving services,” the mayor said at a news conference in Carrollton Ridge.
Valued at $4,685,000, the four-part aid package came mostly from Baltimore’s unobligated “carry forward” funds left over from fiscal year 2025 and American Rescue Plan Act allocations to the city, a spokesman for Scott told The Baltimore Sun.
Scott’s announcement comes as President Donald Trump’s administration threatens to cut off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits — commonly known as food stamps — on Nov. 1, which about 1 in 8 Americans rely on. The shutdown, already the second-longest in history, is stretching into its fourth week without any end in sight.
“Our city dollars will never be able to fill the gaps left by this administration and their friends, but we are committed to doing what we can to support the folks that are the most directly impacted by this shutdown,” Scott said. “If nobody else got us, we have to have our own selves,” Scott said.
Available aid
Scott said the $4.685 million package includes $1.71 million in “food assistance,” which will fund the Maryland Food Bank’s food distribution efforts in West and Southwest Baltimore. This initiative will also support grants for the Baltimore Hunger Project, which will provide food for children regardless of whether they are SNAP or WIC recipients.
Scott said the city will offer a rental assistance program to federal workers who pay rent to private landlords, as well as those who receive federal housing subsidies that may be in jeopardy after October because of the shutdown. Residents whose primary residence is federally subsidized can apply to have their November rent covered, the mayor said.
The four-part funding package also includes $1 million to support childcare for federal workers and SNAP-eligible families and $975,000 to support hospitals engaged in community violence prevention work.
More information on all programs is available at BaltimoreCity.gov/shutdown.
Mfume, Olszewski on shutdown
Scott was joined at Tuesday’s news conference by Maryland Reps. Kweisi Mfume and Johnny Olszewski. Both congressmen represent part of Baltimore City and applauded Scott for stepping up at the local level.
Their presence came as Senate Democrats voted Tuesday to block the Republican-sponsored “clean resolution” that would reopen the government at current funding levels for a 13th time. It also followed the American Federation of Government Employees — the country’s largest union of federal workers — calling for an end to the shutdown on Monday.
Asked at the news conference about the AFGE’s public break with Democrats, Mfume and Olszewski largely stuck to talking points by blaming Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson for refusing to negotiate an end to the shutdown.
“I empathize with where AFGE is. People are hurting, and President Trump is only exacerbating that hurt by choosing to withhold $5 billion of discretionary funding that Congress specifically set aside to continue things like food benefit payments,” Olszewski said.
Mfume later criticized the Trump administration for moving unilaterally to bail out Argentina’s economy via a $20 billion foreign aid package — a total amount later increased to $40 billion. Such a move, coming while federal food benefits are at risk, shows
“If we had half of that money — $20 billion aimed at providing healthcare subsidies that are going to go away — aimed at making sure that SNAP is taken care of, we would be half of the way out of this issue,” Mfume said. “$40 billion to Argentina when we only needed $20 [billion] to get us started on the road here, something’s wrong with that picture.”
The Sun reached out to Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s only Republican congressman, for a response to Mfume and Olszewski’s comments.
Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.