LYNN — Lynn Economic Opportunity’s (LEO) director said President Trump’s federal budget plan hits the agency with deep social service cuts.
“The budget proposed by the Trump administration is draconian. The newly implemented tax cuts help the richest and harm the poorest. President Trump’s budget moves to eliminate the very programs that have helped millions of people to alleviate the effects of poverty in the last 50 years,” said LEO director Birgitta S. Damon.
LEO is joining forces with 22 other community action agencies around the state to protest the cuts.
“Rarely have we seen a budget that has the potential to cut this deeply at the social services that protect our most vulnerable,” said Damon, who has led LEO since 2014.
Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget plan Monday that, according to the Associated Press, envisions steep cuts to America’s social safety net but mounting spending on the military, formally retreating from last year’s promises to balance the federal budget.
The president’s spending outline for the first time acknowledges that the Republican tax overhaul passed last year would add billions to the deficit and not “pay for itself” as Trump and his Republican allies asserted. If enacted as proposed, though no presidential budget ever is, the plan would establish an era of $1 trillion-plus yearly deficits, reported the AP.
Damon is also worried proposed federal budget cuts will “take away vital community services, such as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) for our Head Start parents.”
“This program makes parents proficient in the English language. The more parents learn, the more they earn. The stronger a parents’ employment, the more they can provide for their families. ESOL is a program with boundless community return,” she said.
LEO works to alleviate the immediate impact of poverty while providing pathways to financial stability for individuals, families, and for the benefit of the community of Lynn and its surrounding towns.
“We are proud of the work we do at Lynn Economic Opportunity. We see the impact we have made, and we know the work we do is essential to the community. We are nowhere near done. Help us help others,” said Damon.
Damon said the budget proposals threaten to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and weatherization programs (WAP) which low-income families rely on to pay high heating bills through the winter.
“We know firsthand that everyday people in our greater Lynn service area make terrible choices between heating, eating, food, clothes, and medicine,” said Darlene Gallant, Community Services director for LEO. “Being forced into these difficult choices will create a public health hazard in cities and towns across Massachusetts. It is a domino effect that takes a terrible toll on children and the elderly.”
LEO currently supports nearly 7,000 residents with home heating fuel assistance and home energy programs, supported in large part by National Grid. The energy giant regularly funds home conservation programs and supports long-standing efforts to reduce the public health risk posed by turning off utilities when families are unable to keep up with payments in the winter.
Seventy-three percent of the individuals who receive LIHEAP services through LEO are elderly, disabled or children under the age of six.
LEO fuel and weatherization services help those who are employed (59 percent of individuals have an earned income) — hard workers who still cannot cover their monthly utility bills. It helps homeowners who cannot repair or replace unsafe heating systems.
“LEO gets inside of people’s homes and sees the extremes they go to before they reach out for our help. Often times, once they engage with our agency through fuel assistance we can then refer them to countless other services that make their lives, and the lives of their families healthier overall,” said Gallant.