Hudson Valley residents worried about impact of government shutdown

<p>Many people across the Hudson Valley say the government shutdown will negatively affect them.</p>

News 12 Staff

Jan 21, 2018, 4:10 PM

Updated 2,481 days ago

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Many people across the Hudson Valley say the government shutdown will negatively affect them.
Mahali Colon, of Yonkers, says he is anxious about his son who is in the military.
"He's going to be deployed to Korea and once they shut down, they don't get paid so I feel for them," he says.
Although officials say agencies like Medicare and Medicaid will be running amid the shutdown, many residents who rely on those services aren't convinced they will be running smoothly.
"You don't know what's going to go on," says Yonkers resident Frank Reda. "It's terrible. Certain people aren't going to get paid and it might affect services."
Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas says he is especially concerned about a shutdown of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal agency that gives the city millions of dollars in federal aid.
"That's going to be a real challenge. That threatens mental wellness, threatens homelessness, threatens other life, safety grants we receive to help our police and fire departments," Thomas says.
The Federal Housing Administration will halt new mortgage approvals, and unemployment checks could also be delayed along with early tax returns.
According to the Center for American Progress, during the 16-day government shutdown in 2013, most Internal Revenue Service workers were off the job. The result was a delay of $2.2 billion worth of tax refunds.