Frank McRae, a retiree who lives in Koreatown, didn’t hesitate after I requested what he’d say to President Trump about his declare final week that the affordability disaster is a hoax.
“I’d say, ‘Mr. President, please journey with me … in an effort to expertise firsthand … what it means to should seek for inexpensive meals,’” McRae stated.
I met McRae on the Goldrich Multipurpose Heart, one among three places the place Jewish Household Service LA gives meals and different help to rising legions of individuals in want. McRae, an 81-year-old navy veteran who makes use of a walker due to extreme arthritis, had simply loved a complimentary lunch, which is a giant assist for Goldrich shoppers on tight budgets.
“I do know extra persons are coming in right here now, as a result of I’m seeing individuals I’ve by no means seen,” stated McRae, who’d simply loved a lunch of whitefish with squash and kasha.
If Trump had been to take McRae up on his supply, the president must experience three buses to get to the Goldrich heart from McRae’s condo, the place the lease simply went as much as $900 a month from $863, and it doesn’t also have a kitchen. McRae additionally takes three buses to get to what is perhaps the most affordable cup of espresso in Los Angeles.
“At McDonald’s on Western, south of Santa Monica, senior espresso is 87 cents,” McRae stated. And also you get one free refill, he added.
Properly, we all know Trump loves McDonald’s. At 79, he’d qualify for the senior low cost, and he may be taught one thing concerning the financial system he oversees.
I can consider two explanations as to why Trump stated “nearly the whole lot is down” pricewise, and that affordability is “a Democrat hoax” and “the best con job.”
Both Trump really has no thought what issues price, aside from, say, the $300-million ballroom he’s having constructed after bulldozing the East Wing of the White Home.
Or, after hanging out on a basic marketing campaign promise (“From the day I take the oath of workplace, we’ll quickly drive costs down and make America inexpensive once more…. You simply watch”), Trump is as soon as once more creating his personal actuality.
Regardless of the case, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reviews that shopper costs rose 3% from September of 2024 to September of this yr.
In 2025, grocery and different costs are up whereas shopper confidence is down, primarily based on a number of polls by which Trump is taking a beating on the financial system, and the total influence of tariffs isn’t but recognized. Trump just lately, and grudgingly, acknowledged that affordability may simply be a difficulty, however blamed, in fact, the Democrats for rising costs.
In my very own operating survey of 28 grocery gadgets at my neighborhood Vons, it’s been a little bit of a combined bag on costs. Nineteen gadgets are presently the identical value as on President Biden’s final day in workplace. The overall tab has decreased from $146.03 to $141.73, however the distinction is due nearly completely to a giant drop within the value of eggs, which specialists attribute primarily to declines in avian flu.
Christina Shannon works out on a stationary bike at Jewish Household Service LA. She depends on assets from the group to fill within the gaps that Social Safety doesn’t cowl.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
Christina Shannon, who drops by the Goldrich heart often for a free meal and a exercise within the health heart, instructed me she has reluctantly reduce on one among her favourite meals as a result of the costs have gone hog wild, in a fashion of talking.
“As an alternative of a pack of bacon,” Shannon stated, “I am going to the deli and get like 4 slices.”
And it’s not simply groceries that snip away at her Social Safety test.
“I am going purchase medication, and it’s a bit of bit greater,” Shannon stated. “And I went to the pharmacy to get toothpaste and washing powder. It’s all so excessive.”
Christina Shannon, proven at Jewish Household Service LA, want to transfer however can not afford it.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Instances)
Shannon, who labored as an IRS clerk and did submitting and different duties at Goldrich in a job funded partly by town’s Division of Getting old, makes use of a cane due to hip and knee issues. She stated she’d wish to discover a new condo as a result of the partly sponsored unit she’s been dwelling in for 26 years has no elevator and she or he’s on the second flooring.
“I can’t afford to maneuver as a result of the whole lot is so excessive, however I’m uninterested in climbing the steps each day,” she stated.
Folks have to determine to start with the best way to pay the lease and keep housed, and second of all, the whole lot else
— Eli Veitzer, president and CEO of Jewish Household Service LA,
Eli Veitzer, president and chief govt of Jewish Household Service LA, stated that housing prices for individuals on restricted or mounted incomes is a significant trigger of monetary hardship.
“Folks have to determine to start with the best way to pay the lease and keep housed, and second of all, the whole lot else,” Veitzer stated.
When meals help subsidies had been on maintain due to the federal authorities shutdown, Veitzer stated, his company noticed a surge of newcomers — together with working individuals and households — on the group’s meals pantries in Van Nuys, West Hollywood and Pico-Robertson.
“Within the final two weeks of October and the primary two weeks of November, tons of of latest individuals a day had been coming in,” Veitzer stated.
The best way the financial system is constructed, Veitzer stated, low-wage employees have been compelled to depend on authorities applications for medical care, housing and meals help. When these applications are reduce, or can’t sustain with demand, “the distinction between making it and being on the road could be very skinny.”
As the necessity grows, Veitzer stated, meal suppliers are being compelled to reduce due to authorities cuts. One instance is the Van Nuys-based Valley InterCommunity Council, referred to as VIC, which supplies meals, transportation and social companies to shoppers 60 and older.
Karen Kochara, a driver for the Valley InterCommunity Council, prepares to ship meals to seniors who’re homebound in 2023.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Instances)
“We had been serving 1,000 meals a day to our home-bound shoppers,” stated Leticia Perez, director of operations. That quantity is right down to 600 after a price range reduce on the nonprofit, which is partially funded by town of L.A. in what Perez known as “a trickle-down” of federal and state {dollars}.
I’ve been on these house deliveries with VIC volunteers and I’ve additionally accompanied VIC shoppers on their bargain-hunting missions at native supermarkets. One VIC consumer instructed me she was at all times completely happy to get her palms on a Subway coupon for a footlong sandwich, which she reduce into items to make three meals.
At VIC’s Sherman Oaks heart Monday morning, 15 individuals had already signed up for the day’s meals pantry choices. Within the multipurpose room, the place a free lunch was being ready, Larry Fazio known as out bingo numbers for early arrivals. I then adopted him over to the pantry, the place he helped arrange packing containers of apples, bananas, potatoes and different fundamentals.
“Don’t get me began on him,” Fazio stated after I requested if he knew about Trump’s declare that affordability is a hoax. “I’m being taken off of Medi-Cal.”
Fazio stated he’s nonetheless obtained Medicare, however he had used Medi-Cal to complement his protection.
“We’ve at all times lived on a price range, and now it’s squeaky. We’re being cautious. Even with the electrical energy in the home — the quantity of warmth we use,” Fazio stated.
Come go to the pantry, Mr. President. You would additionally be a part of the volunteers who drive meals to homebound seniors, and possibly when you reduce ever so barely on the variety of chandeliers within the new ballroom, these 400 hungry shoppers may get again on the meals supply checklist.
Or I may hook you up with Frank McRae, whose supply stands.
“Come journey with me.”
steve.lopez@latimes.com
