Calvin Bentley still remembers how he felt when he finally transferred his 7 -year -old wife and son development of public housing in Kansas City, Missouri: “Liberated.”
The arrival of his family to West Bluff Townhomes Downtown followed the nights in incomplete hotel rooms and a fight of him and his wife, Symone, to gather the rental first and last month every time they had to move.
“We went from one place to another, paying monthly leases and weekly payments just to have a roof on our head,” he said.
But now the Bentley are fearing that the cuts in Washington could threaten the only stable house they have had in months such as the efficiency department of Elon Musk’s government with the eyes of the department of housing and urban development due to significant cuts in their effort to reduce the size of the federal government.
Housing defenders and local housing officials say that Dege could reduce agency personnel by up to 50%, leaving the 4 million low -income American families, such as Bentleys, who trust federal funds to maintain a roof on their heads, worried about how that could affect their lives.
His effort to get a place in public home was not easy, said Symone Bentley.
“We spent many, many nights crying, praying,” he said recently.
Symone and Calvin Bentley fear that they could end where they started, scraping the money by doing Dash and Amazon deliveries at night to pay the basic needs.
“Let’s be realistic, if you really don’t have much housing, you probably don’t have much money to eat,” said Calvin Bentley. “And if I was driving, you probably have money for gas either.”
He called him a “domino effect” of financial instability.
Edwin Lowndes, director of Kansas City’s housing authority, said he agrees with Musk and President Donald Trump that inefficiencies in the government “must be solved.” But he fears that the “chainsaw” approach adopted by Musk is not the best way to do it.
Instead, he wants Hud’s leadership to define his mission and then ask: “What is the most efficient and effective way to achieve the goal?”
“I think every business does that,” he said. “So we should also do it in our federal programs.”
The Lowndes office uses HUD federal money to pay the owners through housing coupons for more than 8,000 families in Kansas City that would probably not have home. Another 25,000 families are on a waiting list.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development had around 8,800 staff members throughout the country at the beginning of the year and has already fired hundreds of employees, according to two HUD sources. The agency has not said how many employees have been fired since Doge was created in January.
But a document obtained by NBC News shows possible future HUD personnel cuts up to 50% throughout the agency, even in the unit that manages rent assistance, which could be reduced from 1,529 employees to 765 in mid -May, according to the document.
A source familiar with discussions about staff cuts told NBC News that “conversations are ongoing as the department explores consolidation while continuing to prioritize the service.”
The department is personnel and programs inventory to ensure that “they are working for the American people and delivering the best results,” he said in a statement.
“HUD serves the most vulnerable and will continue to do so in the most efficient and effective way,” the department said.
Lowndes said he fears that the inclination of the staff short in Washington and in the regional HUD offices will interrupt the funds to pay to the owners. But he is still optimistic.
“The practical side of me says on the pragmatic side:” Congress will not allow that to happen, whether democrat or republican, “he said.” I think that when they really see what they need to do, there are enough voices on both sides to say that this is a program that, although it has inefficiencies, it is necessary. We cannot simply move away. ”
For Calvin Bentley, the fear that his new home can be in danger is real since he and his family now feel safe. He says he wants more people to get the help they received.
“It literally shows that there are programs to help people who only need, just a little, just need one leg there,” he said. “There is hope.”
