"Elon Musk's DOGE has gutted the 30-year-old national service agency."
"After devastating fires tore through Los Angeles in January, a crew of more than 300 young people showed up to help, many of them members of the national service program AmeriCorps. Among them was Julian Nava-Cortez, who traveled from northern California to assist survivors at a disaster recovery center near Altadena, where the Eaton Fire had nearly destroyed the entire neighborhood. People arrived in tears, overwhelmed and angry, he said.
“We were the first faces that they’d see,” said Nava-Cortez, a 23-year-old member of the California Emergency Response Corps, one of two AmeriCorps programs that sent 74 workers to the fires. He guided people to the resources they needed to secure emergency housing, navigate insurance claims, and go through the process of debris removal. He sometimes worked 11-hour, emotionally draining shifts, listening to stories of what survivors had lost. What kept him going was how grateful people were for his help.
Volunteers like Nava-Cortez have helped 47,000 households affected by the fires, according to California Volunteers, the state service commission under the governor’s office. But in late April, Nava-Cortez and his team at the California Emergency Response Corps were suddenly placed on leave. Another program helping with the recovery in L.A., the California AmeriCorps Disaster Team, also abruptly shut down as a result of cuts to AmeriCorps.
Both were casualties of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, which has gutted the 30-year-old national service agency in a matter of weeks. In April, AmeriCorps placed 85 percent of its 500 staff on leave and canceled nearly $400 million in grants out of a $1 billion budget. The move effectively ended the service of an estimated 32,000 AmeriCorps workers across the country. The agency puts more than 200,000 people, young and old, in service roles every year."
Kate Yoder reports for Grist May 15, 2025.
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