DOGE cuts to AmeriCorps imperil Habitat for Humanity programs

The Corporation for National and Community Service, better known as AmeriCorps, was a target of the U.S. DOGE Service earlier this month as most staff have been placed on administrative leave, according to recent reporting by the Associated Press (AP).

The move — seen by roughly two dozen states as an attempt to shut the organization down — could endanger the availability of senior support programs, including those designed to facilitate aging in place, according to officials with Habitat for Humanity.

The local Habitat for Humanity affiliate based in Jackson, Tennessee, discussed the changes with TV news station WBBJ, calling the cuts widespread and apparently permanent.

“It came as a surprise,” said Adam Johnson, CEO for Habitat for Humanity Jackson. “We were kind of notified indirectly over the weekend that there might be some funding that’s frozen or funding that is eliminated from institutions like AmeriCorps, and for us, that’s a pretty significant situation because, like many other affiliates across the country, AmeriCorps is such a huge component and key partner with Habitat for Humanity.”

The reporting stated that nationwide, 32,000 volunteers and 1,000 organizations are likely to be impacted by the cuts, which include more than $400 million in grants and the apparent dismissal of around 85% of AmeriCorps staff. 2020 data from the government’s Office of Personnel Management stated that AmeriCorps had 586 dedicated employees.

Shandra McCorkle, who serves as the Jackson Habitat’s aging in place director, said the cuts will impact her efforts to assist seniors in the community.

“This has taken a toll on a lot of Americans across the United States where a lot of them won’t be able to have jobs — no health insurance or anything,” McCorkle told WBBJ. “And this also takes away from the aging in place program that I am currently over for Habitat for Humanity where we go out into the community to do home repairs for those that’s 60 years or older.”

Those home repairs offered up to $10,000 for those within the age group, and was led by an AmeriCorps member, she explained. Finding an alternative, private funding source will be essential to keep the program running.

“That’s going to be private dollars,” she said. “That’s private funding, that’s grassroots, that’s large organizations locally that rally and can help kind of take away that burden and kind of offset the deficit that everyone’s going to feel.”

On Tuesday, a coalition of around two dozen states sued the Trump administration to halt the cuts to AmeriCorps, the AP reported. The suit was filed against the agency’s interim head, Jennifer Bastress Tahmasebi, by Democratic officials and alleges that the White House is operating outside of its authority by cutting services that received congressionally approved funding from the U.S. legislature earlier this year.

“In an attempt to dismantle the agency, the Trump administration and its DOGE demolition team made abrupt and drastic cuts to staff and volunteers and terminated grants,” said Phil Weiser, the attorney general of Colorado, in a statement to the AP. “We are suing to stop this illegal dismantling of AmeriCorps and preserve the spirit of community service in our state and nation.”

In a statement to the AP from the White House, deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said that the president “has the legal right to restore accountability to the entire executive branch.”