As the Trump administration shakes up federal agencies and takes aim at diversity, equity and inclusion, the Maryland Center for Construction Education and Innovation announced the loss of two grants this week.

The cuts hit projects focused on apprenticeships for women and workforce development to help Baltimore tackle its vacant housing crisis.

The Baltimore-based education center received funding from the U.S. Department of Labor last fall and a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency two weeks ago. Both have now been terminated, causing the education center to pause programs and reduce staff, and explore legal action and search for other funding.

“These are not abstract losses,” Jennifer Dewees, the education center’s president, said in a statement Tuesday. “These are missed paychecks, shuttered training programs and stalled progress for communities that need it most.”

The education center was founded in 2009 to address a growing shortage in the construction workforce by strengthening talent pipelines. The construction industry faced a 500,000-worker shortage last year, according to the national trade group Associated Builders and Contractors.

The industry must attract 499,000 new workers next year, according to Associated Builders and Contractors CEO, Michael Bellaman, who said workforce development programs help the industry pick up steam.

The Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations grant from the U.S. Department of Labor was intended to bring more women into the male-dominated sector. The department awarded $6 million to nine community-based organizations last year, including more than $716,000 to the Maryland Apprenticeship Connector, a member of the Maryland Center for Construction Education and Innovation.

In the months since the grant was awarded, Dewees said, she has seen significant progress, with women making up more than three-quarters of enrollees in its apprenticeship programs.

But there were signs that trouble was on the horizon.

Dewees said the education center received a notice in February from the federal Labor Department instructing organizations to stop any DEI activities. Then the department reversed course, and it was back to business as usual, she said.

So it was disappointing, Dewees said, when she received a recent email stating that the grant the center had received “no longer effectuates the Department’s priorities regarding diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.”

Around the same time, the education center received another email — this one from the Environmental Protection Agency. That notice said its plans for a grant called Thriving Communities fit the bill to be terminated under the Trump administration’s “Cuts to Woke Programs” initiative.

“Cuts to Woke Programs” targets “radical gender and racial ideologies” by eliminating grants for preschool development, housing, small businesses, poverty reduction, science and research and foreign aid.

The education center had planned to use the funds to launch Baltimore Modular, which was to train local residents to convert Baltimore’s vacant properties into climate-resilient modular housing. The funding had just been awarded April 22.

Dewees said the education center hadn’t started any work related to the EPA’s grant, but she felt disappointed once again.

“A lot of work went into getting that,” she said. “We believe in the project, and we aren’t giving up on either one of these projects.”

The education center joins the ever-growing list of organizations turning to their communities, local businesses and philanthropy to fund their projects. But many are concerned that these alternative avenues can’t fill the multimillion-dollar gap the Trump administration is creating.

The education center also questions the legality of the terminations and is coordinating with national partners to respond legally, its Tuesday statement reads.

To Dewees, these targeted cuts send “a clear and troubling message,” she said, and “undercuts everything this administration claims to support.”