MW Agency for older adults and people with disabilities to be shuttered under HHS cuts

By Jessica Hall

Former head of agency sees the closure of the Administration for Community Living as an attack on vulnerable populations

With the announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that it will slash its workforce, consolidate divisions and close regional offices, an agency focused on older adults and people with disabilities has become collateral damage.

The Administration for Community Living will be disbanded and its "critical" programs will be integrated into other HHS agencies such as the Administration for Children and Families, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the HHS said. The department did not say which ACL programs were considered "critical" and which would be eliminated.

"These are programs that truly are lifesaving and critical," Alison Barkoff, who headed the ACL from 2021 to 2024, told MarketWatch. "Dozens of millions of older adults and people with disabilities may not know the name ACL, but they know senior centers and Meals on Wheels and programs that touch their lives every day."

In fiscal 2022, the ACL provided more than 261 million meals to older adults, assistance such as respite care to more than 1.5 million family caregivers, and independent-living services to nearly 250,000 people with disabilities, Barkoff said.

According to the HHS announcement, the department's current 82,000 full-time employees will be reduced to 62,000. Meanwhile, 28 divisions will be consolidated into 15, and the number of regional offices will be cut from 10 to five. As part of that reorganization, the ACL will no longer exist.

"This does not save money. It does not make HHS more lean," Barkoff said, noting that the ACL's budget was $2.5 billion. The total HHS budget is $1.7 trillion.

Barkoff, who is now an associate professor of health law and policy at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, said without the ACL, a safety net for seniors and people with disabilities will disappear.

"It will have an enormous impact," she said, and could affect more than 2,500 community-based organizations across the country that were supported by the ACL.

Barkoff said she expects the ACL's programs to be stripped down to only what is required by laws such as the Older Americans Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, but she added that it's unclear what will happen to those programs further in the future.

"Will this administration cut the programs in the future? This is just another way this administration is attacking people with disabilities and older adults," Barkoff said.

The dismantling of the ACL comes as the U.S. population is aging: There are 65 million people age 60 and older and nearly 57 million people with disabilities. By 2034, there will be more older adults than children in the United States.

The gutting of the ACL also comes as other services for older adults are under pressure. The Social Security Administration is cutting 7,000 jobs, or 12% of its workforce, while also closing offices and curtailing telephone services for some groups. The changes are being carried out by the Elon Musk-led entity known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Richard Fiesta, executive director of the advocacy group Alliance for Retired Americans, said the reorganization of HHS and shuttering of the ACL is harmful for the older population that President Donald Trump purports to support.

"Donald Trump often claims, 'We love our seniors,' but today's drastic cuts at HHS reveal just how empty those words are," Fiesta said in a statement. "Slashing staff at HHS will do nothing to help Americans live longer, healthier lives. Even worse, dismantling the Administration for Community Living - an agency that provides assistance so seniors can stay in their homes, access medical care, and support essential programs like Meals on Wheels and local senior centers - is short-sighted and harmful to a secure quality of life."

These actions, along with changes at the Social Security Administration, "send a clear and alarming message to older Americans: 'You're on your own,'" Fiesta said.

The ACL was established in 2012 to bring together under one agency federal programs for older adults and people with disabilities that were previously administered by multiple organizations within HHS and in other agencies. Its services include programs for people with traumatic brain injury, resource centers for people with paralysis and limb loss, and programs that help people navigate their Medicare benefits.

Fred Riccardi, president of the advocacy group Medicare Rights Center, said dismantling the ACL - which he described as "the only federal agency charged with maximizing the independence, well-being and health of older adults, people with disabilities, their families and their caregivers" - would cause "irreparable damage."

-Jessica Hall

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March 28, 2025 14:41 ET (18:41 GMT)

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