DANVERS — U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton hosted a press conference at the Northeast Arc in the Liberty Tree Mall, where officials from North Shore nonprofits discussed the potential impact of recent federal cuts on the low-income families they serve.
Moulton took aim at President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the wake of what he called the “reckless chainsawing of our government.”
“Part of the story here is that so many people just don’t appreciate the lives that Medicaid touches, the work that comes out of HHS, the Health and Human Services Administration every single day,” he said. “So Secretary Kennedy owes us an answer. He needs to explain what he’s doing. He needs to justify these cuts.”
Last Tuesday, a regional division of the HHS located in Boston that provides child care and fuel assistance for low-income families was shuttered, according to a release from U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark.
One primary function of the office was to administer Head Start, a federal program that helps fund early education services for children of low-income families across the state.
CEO of LEO Inc., a Head Start organization, Birgitta S. Damon, spoke on how the closing of half of the regional Head Start offices has left the nonprofit without direction.
“We still have no further word on who it is that we contact in order to ask more questions about the administration of our program,” Damon said. “In Massachusetts, Head Start serves over 11,000 children, zero to five annually. At LEO, we provide essential school readiness support for 400 at-risk children.”
Offering a first-hand account of the impact Head Start can have was Aleah Tillotson, who recounted her story as a homeless mother when she first entered her daughter into the program.
13 years later, Tillotson has her bachelor’s degree and is now pursuing a master’s degree due to Head Start’s investment in her and her daughter’s education
“At the time, I didn’t know all the opportunities that Head Start would provide. I thought my child was just going to go to a good early education program,” Tillotson said. “Head Start really gave me an opportunity and a push forward, not just for my child, but for myself as well.”
Another vital service, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, is being threatened after the entire federal staff was laid off last week.
LIHEAP assists tens of thousands of Massachusetts residents who need help paying energy bills, especially during the winter months.
Local organizations like Peabody-based North Shore Community Action Programs and Action, Inc. that support clients with LIHEAP funding are now left without federal guidance and an uneasiness about what the future might hold.
“We’re concerned about the recent firings of LIHEAP staff. These are the ones that administer the program, and any delay or loss in LIHEAP funding will have to bear consequences locally, but also across the country, to millions of households,” CEO of Action, Inc., Peggy Hegarty-Steck said. “While it doesn’t cover the full cost, it’s the piece that helps people get by. It’s that thing that helps you make your bills every month, and it helps folks to make ends meet.”
Rev. Mike Otero-Otero of the St. Clare of Assisi church in Peabody, a representative of the low-income community on the NSCAP Board of Directors, and a LIHEAP client of NSCAP spoke to the importance of the program for his family.
“If we were unable to pay for our heat, we were unable to cook or use an oven to heat an apartment. Everything, I repeat, everything is electric,” Otero-Otero said. “Had NSCAP not responded, we had no resources, no family, no one to go to. Its programs like fuel assistance within NSCAP have literally saved our lives.”
After hearing from these local nonprofit leaders, Moulton took a question about how he has been trying to enact change with a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate.
“What I tell families is, share your stories. Use social media, whatever you can, to get these stories out to people in our community who support what the Republicans are doing or support Trump,” Moulton said. “I’m working behind the scenes to try to get my Republican colleagues to just do the right thing, to just have the courage to speak up and tell the truth about what’s happening.”
