Salemtown Has Seen the Effects of Increased MAC Customer Counts

The federal government cut the [Metro Action Commission’s] budget by almost half a million dollars this year. Meanwhile, their customer count this summer has increased to about three thousand households so far--almost one thousand more than last year.

With the MAC being located in the heart of Salemtown at 5th and Garfield, many of us here have seen a marked daily increase of folk applying for assistance with their utility bills this summer over the past few weeks. I do not remember the past couple of summers being so busy at MAC, although the winters usually are.

Even with the remarkable stream of applicants coming through our neighborhood, the latest news is that the federal government is cutting MAC funds.