Federal budget proposal outlines deep cuts for housing, homelessness

Presenter: The Trump administration on Friday released its budget proposal, and it calls for deep cuts to housing and homelessness programs. At the May 2 meeting of LEAGUE, Lived Experience Advisory Group for Unhoused Engagement, Lane County’s Amanda Borta:

[00:00:16] Amanda Borta (Lane County): We do see this morning that Trump has released his sort of budget outline. And so that gives us an indication of his priorities and what he hopes to see in a final budget. However, it’s not a final budget, right? It’s from the president, but not from Congress. And so now Congress will take that and it usually ends up being a very different budget when it is finalized.

[00:00:35] However, the president’s outline really has a lot of drastic changes to funding, essentially eliminating Community Services Block Grant, CSBG. And then some drastic sort of restructuring changes to a lot of HUD (Housing and Urban Development) programs, limiting rent assistance to no more than two years.

[00:00:50] There’s some language around ‘able-bodied adults’ and sort of combining a CoC (Continuum of Care) and Emergency Solutions Grant and HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS), which is a program for people living with HIV /AIDS. So there’s some language around restructuring and consolidating programs and reducing those budgets. But that is an indication of, like, some pretty drastic changes.

[00:01:10] So hopefully when it becomes a final budget through the congressional process, it will not be exactly that. This is all we can say right now. But as we know more and get more updates from the national alliance, we can always forward anything like that once we get that, but it just came out this morning, so hot off the press, but keep a look out for that.

[00:01:29] Presenter: If passed by Congress, the budget cuts could shake up housing services in Eugene, a city with homelessness rates among the nation’s worst. Chair of LEAGUE, Richard Self:

[00:01:40] Richard Self (LEAGUE, chair): All right, now was this drastic changes that just came out from an executive order?

[00:01:48] Presenter: Amanda Borta:

[00:01:49] Amanda Borta (Lane County): No. So, each year the president will release sort of their proposed budget to Congress. And so what this one is, is just an outline. It’s not a line-item budget. It’s just that, ‘Here’s big areas of funding and where we want to put money.’

[00:02:03] And so there’s much more funding in defense and essentially big cuts across all other areas, for the most part. So there’s a few programs that he recommends preserving and then really made giant cuts across a lot of other areas of the government.

[00:02:19] And so what that is is just him signaling, ‘This is what I would like to see in a budget and this is my priorities.’ And then Congress is the one that actually, they will finalize a budget. And often it looks very different than what the president proposes, but you know, it’s an odd year, so we will see what happens when it gets to that point.

[00:02:38] Richard Self (LEAGUE, chair): Okay, can you send anything that you have informationwise to me about all of this?

[00:02:43] Amanda Borta (Lane County): Usually the national alliance will summarize and put out kind of a highlight document so we can always forward that information.

[00:02:49] Presenter: That summary from the National Low Income Housing Coalition arrived May 5. It estimated an unprecedented 43% cut to HUD rental assistance, and highlighted that able-bodied adults would be limited to two years’ help with rent.

The Trump administration also proposes eliminating all Community Services Block Grant funding. This fiscal year, Lane County received $492,000 in CSBG funding, to support nearly 24,000 households, and over 1,700 individuals.

The housing coalition asks that you contact your federal lawmakers about the importance of affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources.

The coalition recommends sharing personal stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability.

For the latest developments, listen to KEPW News, starting with Sam Broadway and KEPW Newsday Tuesdays through Fridays at 12:30 p.m, right here on 97.3, Eugene’s PeaceWorks community radio.