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Good afternoon,
Tuesday morning, the Trump Administration announced a freeze on federal grants and contracts aiming to align funding with administrative priorities. Minutes before it was to go into effect, a judge halted the freeze temporarily. Then yesterday, the Administration rescinded the freeze.
Many people have asked what the impact would be on Casa Myrna. The impact would have been drastic. Nearly 80% of Casa Myrna’s budget comes from federal, state, and local government funding. And approximately $5M of our $10M budget comes from the federal government, either directly or indirectly through the state or city of Boston.
A freeze – or worse, the cancellation of contracts – would mean that we may not be able to continue providing rental assistance to over 120 families in private market housing each month. We would have to stop providing homelessness prevention support including funding for rent and utility arrearages for survivors. We could no longer provide emergency financial assistance for food, heat, personal hygiene products, transportation, and children’s supplies. We would lose the ability to provide legal advocacy and representation to survivors in family law and immigration matters. We would have to end our peer leader program where youth learn how to teach other youth about healthy relationships and dating violence.
We know that while this immediate funding threat may be over (for now), there are more coming. We expect that funding for the services we provide will be cut in the coming months.
We do have operating reserves, but not enough to get through a substantial loss of funding. This is why unrestricted funding from individual donors and foundations is so important. In addition to supporting creative new projects and filling in funding gaps, it allows us to continue supporting survivors under the threat and reality of funding cuts.
We are grateful for the many people and organizations who responded immediately to block the freeze. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell co-led 23 attorneys general who filed suit against the Trump Administration. In addition, the Massachusetts Providers Council kept us informed and worked with national advocacy organizations advocate against the freeze.
This last week we saw Executive Orders strike down advancements made in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are witnessing the fear derived from the highly publicized immigration enforcement actions. We know this is a challenging time with much more uncertainty ahead, and we ask you to help us continue to support survivors through this time. We remain committed to survivors and will keep you informed as the policy updates develop further.
Gratefully,
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