Greater than 100 folks gathered Friday morning in entrance of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Constructing in downtown Seattle to protest potential cuts to the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth.
Since President Donald Trump entered workplace, the Division of Authorities Effectivity led by billionaire Elon Musk has been slashing swaths of federal funding and staff. Many at Friday’s gathering had been involved concerning the severity of potential cuts to the division that funds the vast majority of low-income housing and homelessness packages within the nation.
One among them, Ashley Kenny, who works in household homeless companies, held an indication that learn “Palms off HUD.”
“Something lower than the HUD we have now now’s going to go away thousands and thousands of youngsters exterior, and that breaks my coronary heart,” Kenny mentioned.
HUD supplies cash to subsidize housing for tens of hundreds of individuals in King County. The division additionally supplies about $67 million for homelessness companies in King County. The Regional Homelessness Authority mentioned it isn’t experiencing any issues receiving federal funds. Nevertheless, rumors and inside memos are circling amongst HUD workers that counsel giant cuts are coming, together with the closing of the division’s Seattle workplace, which has sparked anxiousness among the many workers there.
“We’re right here to say, ‘No, preserve our HUD workplaces open, launch our funds and allow us to do the work of housing our neighborhood,’ ” mentioned Alison Eisinger, govt director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, a speaker on the gathering.
Troy Christensen, govt director of Porchlight, a homeless companies group in Bellevue, mentioned to the group that cuts to HUD may improve homelessness at a large scale.
“This process was troublesome sufficient earlier than,” Christensen mentioned. “To compound it in the best way that they’re suggesting is unacceptable.”
A coalition referred to as Federal Constructing Fridays has met downtown each week since President Trump’s inauguration to protest the DOGE cuts and to assist federal staff. Every week, the group has protested cuts to totally different companies and departments, together with Social Safety, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs.
“The vast majority of folks assist public faculties, the vast majority of folks assist Social Safety, the vast majority of folks assist well being care. The vast majority of folks assist housing,” mentioned Beth Brunton, one of many organizers of the weekly occasion. “I do know Republicans and Democrats disagree, however that is, like, excessive.”
