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This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý.

This spring, a dozen young adults from across the country decamped to southwest Vermont to help build sorely-needed new homes. They were beginning their year of community service with focused on supporting disaster response and building affordable housing.

But last week, the group’s stint volunteering with Bennington County Habitat for Humanity came to an abrupt end. On April 15, the nonprofit received a call from the federal AmeriCorps agency informing them that their crew of volunteers was being “demobilized,� according to the organization’s executive director, Cindy Luce.

Early the next morning, the 12 corps members hit the road back to their central campus in Iowa, Luce said. By the end of last week, they were put on planes to their hometowns and notified that their contracts would be terminated at the end of the month, according to Luce.

“There was a lot of tears,� Luce said.

The Bennington volunteers were just a few of several hundred young service members dismissed in mid-April as a result of the Trump administration’s push to shrink the federal workforce. Roughly 750 members of AmeriCorps� National Civilian Community Corps program were placed on administrative leave last week, and were told their service terms would terminate at the end of April, The move came a day before to the independent government agency.

Corps members with the NCCC travel to different volunteer sites over a 10-month period while earning a modest stipend. The group serving with Bennington Habitat only had about a week left there before they were scheduled to move onto their next assignment when the termination came, Luce said.

Still, the group’s early discharge could set back the nonprofit’s construction schedule. They had been building a home for a single mother and her son, Luce said.

“If we don’t get additional help from other volunteers to keep the momentum…it’s going to delay when we sell the house,� she said. “If hers is delayed, the next one is delayed, and then the next one is delayed.�

At least one other Habitat chapter in Vermont has been impacted by the AmeriCorps program’s rollback. Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity had been expecting to host a team of volunteers in May and June to help wrap up construction on a duplex in Randolph.

But last week, the organization’s director, Zachariah Watson, received an email informing him that AmeriCorps NCCC “is working within new operational parameters that impact the program’s ability to sustain program operations.� All corps members were currently being returned home, the email said, in alignment with the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-saving priorities.

More from ¿ªÔÆÌåÓý: Tracking changes to federal funds in Vermont under the Trump administration

Central Vermont Habitat had planned for the AmeriCorps group to lay down flooring and put up siding at the Randolph home, so the organization could finalize the sale this summer. The loss of the volunteer labor jeopardizes the project’s timeline, Watson said. Any delay could drive up the project’s costs, particularly if the nonprofit ends up needing to buy materials after tariffs kick in.

“Most of our lumber and insulation and building materials come from Canada,� Watson said. The nonprofit’s lumber supplier has informed them that they anticipate “at least a 14% increase in lumber and in cellulose� when tariffs go into effect, he said.

Aside from Habitat for Humanity, at least one other AmeriCorps group volunteering in Vermont was recalled last week: a team serving with the Federal Emergency Management Agency at their field office in Williston. Crews of service members have been a regular presence there since FEMA stood up the local office in the wake of devastating flooding across Vermont in July of 2023.

The current group only had about two weeks remaining at their assignment in Vermont when they were terminated, according to Doug Farnham, Vermont’s chief recovery officer. FEMA is working to close the Williston outpost � a move Farnham described as “relatively routine� at this stage in the state’s recovery process � and the early termination of the AmeriCorps crew will have a “minimal� impact, he said.