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In another swift and unsurprising move, Donald Trump sent out a memo today freezing almost all federal financial assistance [ [link removed] ] across the country except Social Security and Medicare. This, potentially, means nutrition assistance, rental assistance, Medicaid, disaster relief, and more could be gone by 5pm EST today. Guess who will be harmed the most in this quest to weed out “Marxist equality”? That’s right, the already disinvested communities in which we serve.
Almost all of our clients depend on services that receive at least some federal funding. From housing assistance to health care, everyone from food banks to street medical teams usually receive some sort of federal funding. Our clients depend on that funding to get off of the streets, to stay as healthy as possible while they are on the streets, for job training, health care for their children, everything.
Cutting the federal assistance that millions and millions of Americans depend on- including the Angelenos who just lost everything in the fires- will put more pressure on the states, nonprofits that receive federal funding, and even nonprofits like ours, that don’t. Not only does it mean more demand for services but also more organizations seeking funding from already limited private sources. All because we are doing the jobs that we wouldn’t have to do if the government cared about disinvested communities in the first place.
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We knew what was coming with this administration, they helpfully drafted a plan and distributed it for free to every American. But I don’t think any of us saw it coming this fast or all at once. The cruelty, it seems, is still the point.
I am scared. For our clients, who always face the brunt of these decisions first and hardest. I am scared for our organization, I have no idea how this year will turn out and if the demands on donors and foundations will outstrip their ability to give. I am scared for the very, very hard time that our country is about to go through. But I am not hopeless. I know that no matter what happens, I will wake up every day working to make sure that every American has an ID. I know that we will make it through this, as so many countries have made it through far worse times than we can imagine and no country is as stubborn as this one. I know, as you do, that the only way out is through and we are now firmly stepping into the “through” part. I just hope that we are all willing and able to do whatever we can to help the most disinvested members of our communities get through with us.
If you can, please support us with a one time donation or by becoming a monthly donor. We will need all of the help we can get this year, and we are so grateful to have you on our side.
Thank you,
Kat

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