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On a cold night late last October, a downtown building went up in flames.
The Manchester Apartments on North Pennsylvania Street provided transitional housing for almost 50 military veterans, a home for the previously homeless run by a local nonprofit called Helping Veterans and Families, or HVAF, which has its headquarters right next to the apartment building.
The flames of the fire, determined in subsequent days to be accidental, screamed out the windows and through the roof as firefighters worked from every angle using multiple ladder trucks to control the blaze.
It took hours to extinguish the inferno. Bewildered residents watched the effort and hugged one another in the parking lot. HVAF staff worked tirelessly to ensure all souls were safe and accounted for. They arranged for temporary housing for every veteran, and IndyGo dispatched buses to help with transportation.
The next day, as the city awoke to video of the catastrophic event blanketing local television news, our community did what communities do best: We came together to help.
Donations of food, clothing and funds poured in. Power brokers and celebrities took to social media asking people to support HVAF. It was a reminder of our inherent goodness as humans and our desire to help those in need.
Last month, HVAF faced another potential crisis when the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a short memo calling for a pause on payments for federal grants and other programs.
The executive action threw nonprofits like HVAF that depend on federal funding into turmoil. Some even had their accounts frozen. And though it was temporarily blocked by a judge and rescinded in the following days, the threat that it will return looms large.
It’s a reminder that policy decisions made at 30,000 feet sometimes don’t account for the lives they affect on the ground.
This isn’t an argument that the government is always the best provider of services. I know and have written before in this space that some programs can and should run better, including local low-income housing efforts.
But when the government takes on a direct or indirect service-provider role, we have to be cognizant that abrupt policy shifts have consequences that ripple far beyond the budget line. These decisions can mean the difference between someone having a bed or sleeping on the street, between accessing job support or falling further into poverty.
HVAF is one story of potential harm among thousands. I’m writing this column for all the stories we don’t know and all the people who might have been or might still be affected by sudden funding cuts or freezes at the highest echelon of government that trickle down to the state and local levels.
If our goal is to have more moments where we are uplifting and caring for one another, whether in everyday life or times of crisis, our focus must be on consistency and stability. We can make changes, and those changes might require shifting financial support, but we must always be mindful of the consequences of our actions.
If we take a chain saw into the surgery suite, people are going to wind up getting hurt instead of healed.•
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Chartier is a lifelong Indianapolis resident and owner of Mass Ave Public Relations. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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Thank you, Jennifer. This is one of many examples of nonprofits in our communities that are being negatively impacted by individuals acting on impulse and not understanding the implications of their actions. Or perhaps they do understand, and that is a completely different problem that their Meemaw needs to address.