Housing activists prepare to protest Trump's massive HUD budget cuts that will leave many homeless

Rss@dailykos.com (kelly Macias) · Friday, July 07, 2017, 5:25 pm

A majority of Trump voters cited his business acumen and ability to turn around the country they said was failing miserably as reasons to vote for him. Of those voters that were struggling financially, they bought into promises that housing and jobs would fare better under him than Hillary Clinton. Well, we know that so far he hasn’t delivered on his promise to create many more jobs, since this year is on track to produce the “fewest net new jobs in seven years.” And housing under Trump also looks grim (no surprise there either)—particularly for low-income and working-class renters across the country.

President Donald Trump has proposed multi-billion-dollar cuts to the federal rent support systems that built [Castleton Park, a development in Staten Island with numerous rent-subsidized units] in the first place and helped keep the complex’s working-class tenants in the city all these years.

His budget plan for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would shred funding for the rent supports, affordable housing construction, and Community Development Block Grants that drive many local and state housing policy programs.

Tenants impacted by the Trump administration’s potential budget cuts are not taking this lightly. On Thursday, in 22 cities across the country, they plan to protest at local HUD offices as well as hold meetings with local lawmakers. Their purpose is to advocate for full funding of HUD so that renters can have access to affordable housing.

Trump has proposed staggering cuts across the federal rental support system. His budget badly understates the scope of the cuts, depicting them as a course correction, when in fact they amount to intentionally crashing the plane. A Section 8 cut billed at $300 million, for example, actually amounts to a $2 billion reduction once soaring annual rent hikes and inflation are factored in, housing experts have told ThinkProgress.

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