There was a steady hum of chatter at the Haines/Klukwan Senior Center during a recent Wednesday lunch. On the menu: lasagna, apricot salad, bread and steamed veggies – all for just $5, for those who could afford to pay.
Lunch may be what brings seniors to the building three days a week around noon. But it’s far from the only draw. Haines resident David Kohlstaedt, who was sitting at a long table chatting with friends, said the space is a crucial social outlet.
“Three meals a week, I don’t have to cook,” he said. “I come almost an hour early every day, and we come around and shoot the breeze.”
Christal Verhamme, who manages the center for the Juneau nonprofit Catholic Community Service, says Kohlstaedt isn’t alone.
“A lot of them say this is the only thing that they do, their only outlet. Their only way to get rides,” she said. “And for some, it’s their only way to get a cooked meal.”
The Trump administration’s ongoing effort to downsize the U.S. government is fueling concerns over the future of this center – as well as other programs that serve people across Alaska.
At issue is the Administration for Community Living, a federal office that funds programs for older people and people with disabilities – including Catholic Community Service – from within the Department of Health and Human Services.
Or at least it used to. The Trump administration said late last month it’s dismantling the office and integrating its “critical programs” into other agencies. The announcement also said thousands of department employees would be cut, including many Administration for Community Living staff members.
The move is among several Trump policies fueling uncertainty for nonprofits and the people who rely on the services they provide, said Erin Walker-Tolles, executive director of Catholic Community Service, which operates 10 senior centers in Southeast Alaska.
“We’re just concerned that about additional cuts and lack of resources from the administration, because community need is only growing as the senior population continues to grow in Southeast,” she said.
So, what is the Administration for Community Living?
The Administration for Community Living was created back in 2012 to streamline federal efforts to support seniors and people with disabilities.
The office doles out grants to programs that run senior centers, provide rides and distribute millions of meals — including through Meals on Wheels. Catholic Community Service, for instance, received roughly $3 million from the office last year, much of which comes through tribal partners. That’s nearly 40% of the organization’s budget.
Walker-Tolles said that it remains unclear what the reshuffling will actually mean for programs, but that she assumes funding will be administered some other way. She added that she understands the importance of reducing costs and streamlining resources – but that the lack of clarity around these moves has consequences.
“As these changes come through, there is no plan that we are aware of to ensure that things are simpler. Instead, it is more work,” Walker-Tolles said. “It is chaos.”
That’s especially concerning in Southeast, where the population is older than most of the state. Haines specifically has long held the title of being Alaska’s oldest borough. The median age here is just under 50 years old, compared to about 37 statewide.
‘It’s very scary’
The Trump administration’s firings and program cuts at the Administration for Community Living – and to the broader department – won’t just affect seniors.
Southeast Alaska Independent Living, for instance, provides a bevy of services, including in Haines. Among them: loaning out walkers, crutches and wheelchairs, and supporting students with disabilities as they transition into adulthood. A report from last year says 20% of the organization is federally funded – at least some of which comes from the Administration for Community Living.
There’s also REACH Inc., a Juneau-based non-profit that supports people with disabilities. The group doesn’t get funding from the Administration for Community Living, said Naomi Studevan, the organization’s executive director. But it does get funding from another federal agency that focuses on medicaid and medicare, which reportedly lost 300 employeesto layoffs in recent weeks.
“There’s already a waitlist that is there when it comes to people accessing services in the first place. So to think that there’s going to be fewer people there to review applications, fewer people there to have oversight,” Studevan said. “It’s very scary.”
Back at lunch in the senior center, all seems normal. People eat, visit, participate in a book club and play disc golf on a Wii gaming system. But all it takes is one question about the administration’s recent moves to reveal lingering anxiety about the future of the senior center.
“We’re worried about it,” said Haines resident Todd Wagner, who comes to the center most days that lunch is served. “We don’t want it to get messed up where they don’t have it anymore. That could happen, we know that.”
Then there’s Donald Poling, who is 82 and has lived in Haines with his wife Dottie since the 1990’s. He said they heavily rely on the facility’s services, including for rides to the ferry and airport when they leave town to seek medical care.
Asked what he makes of the recent announcement, Poling took a swipe at Elon Musk, who has been spearheading White House efforts to downsize the government.
“It looks like President Musk is kinda taking the government apart,” Polling said. “And that means public services, services to poor people, services to seniors, even Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”
