ACTION ALERT:
White House Proposing Drastic Cuts to HUD Programs
Contact your Congresspeople — encourage friends and family in states with Republican representation to contact theirs, too!The Trump administration has recently released their proposed budget, which Congress will now consider.
The budget has potentially devastating cuts to HUD program. These cuts would solely impact programs that support low-income families or low-income neighborhoods.
The proposal would cut the Section 8 program funding by around 40%. The remaining money would be sent to states to administer themselves. Many HCA tenants and others in Arlington use the Section 8 voucher program to help them pay rent. Millions use it across the country. Tenants pay 30% of their income towards the rent and the voucher covers the rest. This cut will not only directly harm the families who need these vouchers to help them pay their rent, but it will mean that their landlords (including HCA) — who need rent to pay for core building needs — won’t be able to collect that income.
Section 8 also supports federal public housing. This would not have a direct impact on Arlington’s public housing, but could devastate other public housing in our region, causing ripple effects state-wide.
Sending the remaining funds that will not be cut to states would be a huge administrative change and hurdle. In Massachusetts, we can likely count on our state to apply those funds for our state housing voucher program (called MRVP) and to support the federal public housing in our state. In some other states, it is certain that those funds would be diverted away from programs for low-income people. That is what happened in the past when other funds for low-income families were sent to states instead of being administered by the federal government.
The change also proposes to put a 2-year cap on getting this assistance for “able bodied adults”, reinforcing the false assumption that if you are capable of working, then you can magically somehow afford the astronomically high rents in today’s housing market. The problem is the entire structure of our real estate market, and arguably, also our job market. The problem is not that people who can’t afford to spend $3,000 a month on housing aren’t working. Overwhelmingly, tenants who can work are working, but the gap between their income and the cost of housing is insurmountable.
It would eliminate the HOME and CDBG programs. Literally every one of HCA’s affordable housing developments to date (except for the recent single unit ADU) has relied on HOME funds. Nearly all of our earlier scattered site developments have relied on CDBG funds. Today, HCA relies on CDBG funds to support needed capital repairs to our properties, like to replace roofs, or degraded stairs and decking. CDBG funds also support other hugely important social programs run by other nonprofits in Arlington that serve low-income families.
Finally, at a time when homelessness is rising – particularly among families with children – this budget proposes a reduction in funds to support programs that assist homeless or unhoused families or individuals.
TAKE ACTION!
This overview from NAHRO (National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials) has a good overview — and a call to action at the bottom. Please scroll down and take action. Our MA Senators (Markey and Warren) and our Representative in Congress (Katherine Clark if you live in Arlington) need to hear from us – that with give them more motivation to fight hard on this.
Please also forward that link to your friends and families in red states or who have Republican Senators or Representatives and ask them to take action, too. |
