Trump administration’s AmeriCorps cuts delay storm recovery projects for Philly homeowners

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Standing in the kitchen of her North Philadelphia home, Francine Flemings describes how Hurricane Ida sent water gushing into her home in September 2021. Water poured from a broken downspout through a hole in the roof and seeped in under the door, damaging the ceiling and baseboards and compromising the structural stability of the floor.

“I had standing water in here,” Flemings recalled.

More than three years later, she was about to get needed repairs with the help of volunteers working through AmeriCorps, a federal program that pays a modest living allowance of less than $100 a week to youth aged 18 to 26 years old, who work on a range of community service projects.

But the Trump administration’s funding cuts led to an abrupt layoff of the volunteers, putting home repairs for people like Flemings on pause.

“It makes me want to cry,” Flemings said.

For the last five weeks, the volunteers with AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps have worked to repair storm-damaged homes in Pennsylvania under the guidance of a disaster relief coalition known as the Pennsylvania Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. The volunteers were scheduled to begin work on Flemings’ kitchen Wednesday, said Brian Baer, director of a nonprofit that’s part of the coalition.

But the volunteers didn’t show up because AmeriCorps had already sent them home. They will be paid until the end of the month, according to the Associated Press.

“It’s devastating that they had to go home early,” Flemings said. “They are needed — and they’re not just needed by me, they’re needed in an abundance of places. They’re needed all over.”

The crew of 11 AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, or NCCC, volunteers arrived in Berks County and the Philadelphia area in early March to rebuild and repair several homes damaged by the remnants of Hurricane Ida and an unnamed storm in 2023, according to publicly available AmeriCorps data. The group was scheduled to work in Pennsylvania through next Wednesday.

But in an email shared with WHYY News, a regional AmeriCorps official told the Pennsylvania disaster relief coalition Tuesday evening that the federal agency was “demobilizing all currently serving NCCC Members,” due to “new operational parameters” in line with President Donald Trump’s priorities and his Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting executive order. The official wrote that the decision was made on an “urgent timetable” and reflected a “diminishing ability” to support members in the field.

The crew of young volunteers left Philadelphia Wednesday morning, said Pennsylvania Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster President Julia Frank.

AmeriCorps did not respond to a request for comment.

Flemings, who retired from the IRS in 2019, said wind and rain from Ida exacerbated existing structural damage to her home from a demolition of the row house attached to hers. The disaster relief coalition has repaired Flemings’ roof, repaired drywall damage in a bedroom and replaced missing siding. But the floor in Flemings’ kitchen remains uneven, ceiling tiles are still missing and a hole remains beneath the door.

Baer planned to guide the AmeriCorps volunteers through beginning to gut and rebuild Flemings’ kitchen over the next week and hoped a second crew would finish the project this summer. Now, Baer estimates the earliest he’ll be able to find a crew of different volunteers to finish the job will be August or September — a full four years after Ida hit.

Baer said roughly 250 homes are awaiting repairs. While the coalition can get more help from local faith groups and service organizations for home repairs in Philly, AmeriCorps was a reliable source of volunteer labor.

Flemings said she’s frustrated by the delay.

“I would have fixed it myself if I had the funds,” Flemings said. “Now how long is it going to take to close up my house?”

AmeriCorps pullout stalls repairs in 6 Philly-area homes

Flemings is not the only hurricane victim left in limbo. Danyel Johnson’s West Philly home suffered damage when rainwater poured through a window into the basement during the remnants of Hurricane Ida, causing mold to grow on the walls until her brother cut the damaged drywall out. The AmeriCorps volunteers were in the midst of replacing the drywall Tuesday when Johnson learned they wouldn’t be coming back.

“I was really shocked and surprised,” Johnson said. “My basement is not all the way done.”

The crew installed new drywall and hung new doors, but left the walls unpainted and the doors without knobs.

“I wish [the volunteers] could have stayed,” Johnson said. “They did an excellent job for the part that they did complete, up to where they had to leave.”

The AmeriCorps volunteers left without finishing repairs in six homes, including Flemings’ and Johnson’s in Philadelphia and neighboring Yeadon, members of the disaster relief coalition said.

The AmeriCorps crew had worked a total of more than 1,920 volunteer hours valued at over $63,000, Frank said.

“Volunteers are a huge part of our effort as they save us thousands of dollars in labor costs,” she wrote in an email.