While CLASS, Healthy Living for All, will be greatly impacted as an agency by the Trump administration’s temporary pause on grant, loan and other financial assistance programs at the Office of Management and Budget, executive director Ann Lowrey is more worried about the people that the non-profit serves.
She said its operations and programs predominately are funded by federal grants to the state of Louisiana, and CLASS is a contractor or sub-recipient of the grants.
“In January alone, CLASS helped house nearly 100 people living with HIV or AIDS. Without our assistance, many of these individuals are at risk of becoming homeless,” she said, citing this as an example of one of the supportive services they provide.
“There are many, many people who rely on these services for their survival,” she said.
She said CLASS provides services in three categories that rely on federal funding to varying degrees. Those services include “supportive services for people living with HIV; HIV prevention services that include HIV and STI testing, linkage to care or treatment at our facility; and preventative HIV services, including access to pre-exposure prophylaxis services; and Harm Reduction services that include alcohol and substance misuse groups and access to treatment options, syringe services and overdose prevention education and materials including Narcan.”
Linda Hutson, director of development and community relations at the Food Bank of Central Louisiana, said they have read the information that they have seen in the news, but have not heard anything officially or unofficially about their current funding streams or grants, so they don’t know enough to make a comment at this time.
Kitty Wynn, executive director of the Central Louisiana Homeless Coalition in Alexandria, said they decided to pause moving forward with some things because of the order.
Central Louisiana Technical Community College released a statement to its students Tuesday afternoon regarding the executive order that read, “We are closely monitoring recent federal actions as we receive the latest updates from national organizations and our legislative partners. The Department of Education has indicated that the temporary funding pause does not impact Federal Pell Grants, Direct Loans Under Title IV, HEA, Title I, IDEA, other formula grants, or assistance received directly by individuals. However, it may impact other programs. We are actively seeking clarification on how these changes will be implemented, and as we await further guidance and assessment, we remain focused on our mission to provide accessible education and workforce training that supports Louisiana’s communities and economy.”
