Every month more than two dozen people walk into ACORN's Cincinnati office on Central Avenue for help with avoiding foreclosure and finding financial aid programs.
ACORN, or The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community activist group. But starting this Friday, it's suspending its social services and outreach.
The agency is conducting damage control after undercover video hit the airwaves. In it, ACORN workers appear willing to help a pimp and prostitute buy a home to run as a brothel. The two were actually conservative activists.
ACORN says the tapes were doctored and an internal investigation is underway. The employees in the tapes have been fired.
The leader of Ohio ACORN, Amy Teitelman, calls the videos "a racist and classist campaign against us."
"We're going to stop service delivery for now," said Teitelman, "We're having meetings today across all of our offices including here in Cincinnati, to trouble-shoot and problem-solve about what do we need to do to be ‘spic and span’ to avoid the slightest perception that we're doing anything wrong."
Over the last 15 years, ACORN is estimated to have received $50 million from the federal government.
Lawmakers moved this week to cut that funding.
By an overwhelming vote, the House of Representatives sent a strong message to the group: no more money from taxpayers.
House GOP leader John Boehner called ACORN "a troubled organization rife with corruption and criminal conduct." House Republicans, Boehner says, have asked President Obama to end all federal funding for ACORN.
But Teitelman says federal funds are a small part of Ohio ACORN's budget. She hopes to provide outreach again in a month or so after the activist organization takes time to regroup.
"It's not going to bring us down,” said Teitelman. “It's going to hurt the 20 or 30 people a month that knock on our door looking for referral help.”
“We won't be able to help those people and they'll go under-served and their homes may be foreclosed on," said Teitelman.
While social services are suspended, ACORN says it will continue its lobbying work, pushing for health care reform and foreclosure legislation.
