I’ve largely avoided writing about the inexecrable mess that is President Donald Trump in this column. Mostly because we already know.
Why belabor the obvious? When one steps in dog shit, for example, you don’t need a whole conversation about what just happened. There is no point in describing the smell and consistency to everyone you know.
No one needs to hear that. It’s on their shoes too. Almost everyone already knows what it looks like. It’s better to talk about something else.
You just grab a stick, scrape it off, shuffle a bit in the grass, and maybe walk more carefully in the future.
But what if the growing piles of poo that clutter your path have made it nearly impossible to get anywhere?
What if the highest levels of government are saying, “That’s not dog shit! That’s ice cream! Eat it!”
Trump’s proposed 2019 Housing and Urban Development (HUD) budget request is a lot like that.
In a time when only one in five households eligible for housing assistance receives any help, the president has leveled the largest attack upon public housing in history.
In a time when only one in five households eligible for housing assistance receives any help, the president has leveled the largest attack upon public housing in history.
The proposed $8.8 billion in HUD cuts would eliminate all funding for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and the HOME Investment Partnerships program. The Public Housing Capital Fund, which is used to repair and rehabilitate public housing units, would also be eliminated.
Section 8 Rental Assistance vouchers would be cut by 10 percent, and rents to people in public housing would increase, in some cases dramatically. Even worse, the President wants to impose work requirements on those receiving housing assistance.
It has long been a truism that the homeless crisis is here to stay unless the federal government becomes more meaningfully involved in the solution.
It has long been a truism that the homeless crisis is here to stay unless the federal government becomes more meaningfully involved in the solution.
Most of us were never especially optimistic about this, but we now have this administration’s definitive answer, and it’s a steaming pile of you know what.
These programs have been targeted because they “have failed to demonstrate effectiveness” and because local government is “better equipped to respond to local conditions.”
States and localities are to pick up more of the tab for housing assistance. As has been the trend since roughly Ronald Reagan’s administration.
Never mind that this is exactly what CDBG and HOME funding is designed to do: leverage federal dollars at the local level in just the ways localities determine.
Apparently, they think states will do better at that without the federal funding. Logic has never been this administration’s strong suit.
But the motivation here isn’t just run of the mill right-wing hatred of the poor. It’s more linked to the other staple of this administration: unapologetic racism.
But the motivation here isn’t just run of the mill right-wing hatred of the poor. It’s more linked to the other staple of this administration: unapologetic racism.
Here’s the thing about federal block grant funding. It’s tied to enforcement of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, gender, color, or creed in housing.
The Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule would withhold CDBG funding from housing authorities that don’t comply with the Fair Housing Act.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson has said that he wants to delay implementation of Obama’s AFFH rule because housing authorities need time and technical assistance to come into compliance.
That, too, is a steaming pile of doggy diarrhea. The proposed budget has no such technical assistance funding included.
The Trump budget proposal eliminates the issue by simply killing CDBG funding altogether. Whatever compliance issues exist will become moot because there is no funding to withhold. Done and done.
If there is a silver lining it is this: with so much dog crap everywhere, this administration can’t help but step in it themselves. Housing experts, while alarmed, believe it unlikely that this proposed budget would ever be adopted.
At the same time, they worry that in proposing such an extreme budget in the first place, the president’s win will be to make smaller cuts in a time of dire need feel more acceptable.
There is a solution to all of this that’s in keeping with scatological metaphor. Bury that shit in 2018. It’s good for the roses and relief for the noses.
Tim Harris is the Founding Director Real Change and has been active as a poor people’s organizer for more than two decades. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1994, Harris founded street newspaper Spare Change in Boston while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace.
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