Federal funding for the Healthy Homes and Lead Reduction programs is at risk.
The cuts would affect the St. Petersburg initiative aimed at reducing lead and other health hazards in homes.
At the beginning of the year, the city partnered with the national Healthy Homes Community Coalition to launch a lead-reduction program, made possible with a $2.5 million federal grant.
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The current funds for the first phase of St. Petersburg's efforts are not at risk, but funding for the next steps might not be possible if the federal program loses its money.
President Donald Trump recommended that the national initiative lose all its funding. The House proposed a $50 million cut, and the Senate suggested knocking the funding down $300 million.
In 2025, the federal program received $345 million.
St. Petersburg received $2.5 million of that in a grant from the national program to develop the workforce and infrastructure to launch lead reduction projects in homes.
That grant is up at the end of 2025, so the city needs to apply for another round of money to start the remediation projects.
Avery Slyker, the city's director of housing and community development, said federal cuts would mean the national organization has less money to pass down to local programs, such as St. Petersburg's.
She said without federal money, the organization would have to turn to private and local sources — or put the program on hold.
"So without that funding, you have local governments, nonprofits that lose the critical resources to identify and mitigate these health risks, leaving the families exposed to very dangerous conditions," Slyker said.
Since launching the partnership, the group has built St. Petersburg's program, led public education and workforce development, and created infrastructure to address the issue.
"This program directly contributes to improved public health," she said.
She said the next phase of the project would be putting the workforce just trained to work, conducting remediation projects across the city.
If the recommended cuts pass, getting the next grant that phase might not be possible.
"When you're talking about the elimination of that, that is significant and far-reaching negative impacts," she said.
Slyker said these programs specifically help lower-income or older families that may unknowingly live in a home with lead-based hazards.
"Through eliminating it, you're affecting those vulnerable populations who often reside in that older housing," she said.
Prolonged exposure to these hazards could cause lead poisoning, asthma or other dangerous health conditions.
"That's going to shift the burden then to your local health systems, you're going to increase your long-term public cost," Slyker said.
