LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Melinda Townsend-Breslin has spent her career working to help the underprivileged gain housing.

Fired federal workers across the country are now in a race to find new jobs before their benefits expire. Townsend-Breslin, a Louisville resident, is one of them. 

Townsend-Breslin has always been good with numbers; in fact, she once tutored math. Her job with the Department of Housing and Urban Development was a perfect fit.

She was a portfolio management specialist and tasked with making sure the numbers added up, tracking how federal funding for housing assistance was being spent at 121 agencies across the state. 

“Are they really doing the work they say they are doing?" she explained. "Are they serving the public in the best way? And then financial analysis, do they have the monies in the right places? Are they helping the people that are truly in need?"

Townsend-Breslin has worked in housing for a decade, for other agencies and nonprofits. Her position with HUD ended abruptly on Feb. 14 as part of President Donald Trump's administration's push to reduce the federal workforce. 

In a department already understaffed, Townsend-Breslin said maybe her number wouldn’t be called.

“I’d done very well on my mid-year review, as high as I could get, so we thought all those factors maybe would mean I wouldn’t get the email," she said. "But at 3:08, I did get the email."

After only eight months in a position she had worked years to achieve, she was out. Like the thousands of other recently fired federal employees now scrambling to find a new job, she said another storyline has emerged: a numbers game. 

Townsend-Breslin said the result of mass firings means the job market is flooded with highly skilled candidates. It’s been 11 days since her job was eliminated, and she said she has applied to 21 positions on job-seeking websites such as Indeed. 

The day is quickly approaching when Townsend-Breslin's health insurance expires, she said. Nonetheless, she's thinking of how those receiving HUD assistance may be at risk during this federal shakeup. 

“My calling is to serve people, so I'm focused on those that have missions that are going to serve vulnerable populations in and around the state and in the city," Townsend-Breslin said. "I’ve cast my net very wide so I can do that. That’s my ultimate goal.”