'Veterans Are Not Fit To Have A Job At This Moment'
Un-American Overpaid Trump Adviser Alina Habba.
As President Donald Trump's administration makes across-the-board budget cuts across multiple federal agencies, some formerly homeless veterans may be poised for direct impact.
The rest he calls ‘Suckers and Losers’.
ABC 12 Westchester recently reported that a grant from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that helps pay for formerly homeless disabled people and veterans to be housed is now on the chopping block. 39 year-old Hudson Valley resident Liz Albus — a disabled woman with severe mental illness who has an autistic two year-old son — depended on the grant to pay for the bulk of her rent in a two-bedroom apartment in Poughkeepsie, New York. But she received a letter from HUD notifying her that she would now be on the hook for the full rental amount of $1800/month.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding federal funding, your rental payment assistance is expected to end as of April 1," the letter read."
“When I think about losing this, I’m like – OK. My life is over,” Albus said.
Nonprofit organization Hudson River Housing told ABC 12 that of the 33 formerly homeless people they're serving thanks to the $360,000 HUD grant, three of them are veterans. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) tweeted that cutting off funding helping veterans have shelter was "simply un-American."
"Every single Patriot needs to stand up immediately and make it clear: We will not let Donald Trump put dozens of families, including veterans and kids, on the street," Ryan wrote.
HUD has been particularly impacted by the Trump administration's cuts. NPR reported last month that the agency could fire up to 84% of its staff in its Office of Community Planning and Development. That office funds affordable housing construction and provides disaster relief.
A VA memo shared this week by the American Federation of Government Employees showed a plan to cut more than 80,000 positions across the department, and mental health professionals who spoke with NPR said they're not sure whether they'll be laid off from the jobs they love, and they don't want to forced to leave behind the veterans they're helping.
Musk told Cabinet members last week that his emails were intended to learn which workers were "real" and "have a pulse and two neurons," which Donald Trump's appointees laughed at appreciatively, but the psychologist said those emails, and all of the other DOGE-related disruptions throughout the government, are taking a toll.
Mental health professionals with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs call Elon Musk's "what did you do last week?" emails a form of psychological warfare.
The tech billionaire demanded that federal workers justify their jobs to him, as the apparent head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency tasked with rooting out fraud and slashing the budget, and mental health providers told NPR about the impact his campaign has had on them and others.
"Many of us feel like we are being bullied to justify our existence and worth," said one licensed clinical psychologist, who said the VA has long kept a record of everything she does, from the number of patients she sees, how long those appointments last, to the topics they discuss and the pamphlets she hands out.
"I have to keep it together and placate OPM emails, or get terminated, while also answering veterans' concerns about whether I will be there for them the next week or month," she said. "Instead of being able to do good work to address their depression, PTSD, sexual trauma, combat trauma, etc., I have to spend time calming their nerves."
Another psychiatrist told NPR she was in a grocery store parking lot when she saw the first "What did you do last week?" email, which was sent on a Saturday as she was off work and trying to relax with her family – and she's certain Musk did that on purpose.
"As someone who specializes in mental health, I can say with confidence that this weekend emailing is meant to psychologically upset federal workers," she said.
Musk's blitz attack worked.
"I am anxious and irritable at home," she said. "I find myself doomscrolling for the first time ever, which is negatively impacting my mental health and something I tell my veterans to not do."
The psychiatrist said colleagues are cautious about their online communications and in meetings out of paranoia about potential monitoring by DOGE staffers, and she assumes the responses to Musk's emails are being analyzed using artificial intelligence for reasons she doesn't trust.
"I truly believe this is a nefarious process," she also said.
"In the private sector, I could be working with 'easier' or less complicated patients," the psychologist said. "The reality is that those of us that opt to come to work for the VA do so because of our call to duty to serve those that served us."
