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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Mai Trinh Chang, Chief of Staff of Asian Americans for Equality
3:15:36
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167 sec
Mai Trinh Chang, Chief of Staff of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE), testified about the impact of federal funding cuts on their organization's programs and the communities they serve. She highlighted challenges in food distribution, small business support, and affordable housing due to funding uncertainties and cuts.
- AAFE's food pantries face funding uncertainties, leading to halted spending and cancellation of a new pantry.
- Small business support programs are threatened by cuts to SBA and CDFI funding.
- Affordable housing projects face challenges due to potential cuts in Section 8 and uncertainties in federal pass-through funding.
My Trinh Chang
3:15:36
Thank you.
3:15:36
Good afternoon, Brandon, chair Wesseler, and members of the committee.
3:15:40
I'm Mai Chang.
3:15:41
I'm the chief of staff of Asian Americans for Equality.
3:15:43
I'd like to thank the council for your support of so many of AFI's programs that range from access to health benefits to affordable housing and small business services that serve over 35,000 people a year.
3:15:54
As you know, the folks who use our programs face growing hardship as the resources they rely on are cut.
3:15:59
As providers, we're also concerned about the sustainability of our programs, And I'll highlight a few of the impacts that we're seeing.
3:16:06
AFI operates three food pantries and in fiscal year twenty four, '5 thousand '2 hundred and '80 households participated in our food pantries where we distributed 79,000 pounds of food.
3:16:16
The needs always been greater than what we've been able to provide.
3:16:20
But recently, we've been asked by one of our funders to halt spending due to the uncertainty of reimbursement.
3:16:25
We had also planned for a new pantry that was to begin distribution this month, but it was canceled when our partner informed us that there's no longer funding for it.
3:16:34
In our small business work where last fiscal year, we canceled, over 1,200 clients, made a 44 loans, and disbursed $9,600,000, We rely on grants from SBA and US Treasury's CDFI fund.
3:16:47
We've seen the administration slash employment at SBA and eliminate the CDFI fund.
3:16:52
As you know, small businesses have suffered from a series of hardships from the COVID pandemic and hybrid or remote work, and now they face potential impacts of tariffs.
3:17:00
More than ever, we need the resources to support small businesses who are unable to access capital from traditional financial institution.
3:17:07
And we'd like to thank the speaker for her support of AFI through the creation of the city's CDFI fund.
3:17:12
We're committed to fighting to continue these services for small businesses.
3:17:17
In our 1,000 unit portfolio of affordable housing that ranges from Chinatown on the Lower East Side to Flushing, Bay Ridge, Chelsea, and Harlem, proposed federal cuts to section eight and staff benefits are gonna have detrimental effects to families having to choose between buying food and paying rent.
3:17:33
Affected families are gonna face hardship, and reduced rent collection also means financial hardship for the buildings that then will not have the resources to be maintained.
3:17:42
And finally, we're gonna face challenges in building new affordable housing projects, and we have some in the pipeline in Crown Heights and the Park Rockaways as well.
3:17:50
And it'll be challenging to move those forward when we're looking at potentially major cuts in section eight and where there's uncertainty in federal pass through funding for other resources as well.
3:18:00
And then we're looking at uncertainty in the cost of materials.
3:18:03
Nonprofit developers pay for these risks in the form of higher borrowing costs, and we guarantee all of the cost overruns for projects.
3:18:09
So a single bad project can bankrupt almost any nonprofit, and that's the risk that all nonprofit developers are facing right now.
3:18:15
Thank you so much for your support of organizations like ours and the opportunity to provide testimony during such a crucial crucial time for New Yorkers.