President Trump released his 2020 budget request today and unfortunately, as in his FY18 and FY19 requests, the proposal again calls for dramatic cuts to housing programs that aid low-income households. Those cuts disproportionately affect seniors, those with disabilities, families with children, and veterans.
Overall, the administration proposes to cut HUD by an astounding $9.6 billion or 18% below 2019 enacted levels, imposing deep cuts to affordable housing and community development programs. In addition to the cuts, the proposal revisits policy suggestions previously proposed by Secretary Carson to implement rental increases on the lowest-income households and work requirements that have not been shown to increase family or self-sufficiency.
The budget also incorporates draft legislation, known as the “Making Affordable Housing Work Act,” proposed by the administration last year that would increase rents on most non-elderly, non-disabled families receiving HUD assistance by requiring that they pay 35% of their gross incomes, compared to 30% of their adjusted incomes. Due to that calculation, the very poorest elderly and disabled families would also see their rents triple as it eliminates income deductions for medical or childcare expenses. The proposal allows housing providers to broadly impose work requirements, without any resources to help people gain the skills they need for livable wage jobs.
Data shows 46 percent of Indiana renters are cost-burdened and 86 households experience evictions every day in our state. This is not the time for draconian cuts that will undermine essential housing and community development programs like the national Housing Trust Fund, the HOME Investments Partnership program, and public housing capital repairs. We are actively communicating with our Indiana Congressional Delegation, urging them to not only reject this proposal’s cuts, but significantly expand the investments in affordable homes that Hoosier families and communities need to prosper.
See the table below for specifics on the proposed budget:
HUD
|
USDA Rural Housing
|
|
Community Development Block Grants/HOME: The budget proposes eliminating the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and the HOME Investment Partnerships program entirely. The bill also would eliminate Choice Neighborhoods grants, the Section 4 Capacity Building program, and the Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program.
|
Multifamily Preservation and Revitalization demonstration, Section 502 Direct Homeownership Loans, Section 514/516 Farm Worker Housing Loans and Grants, Section 523 Mutual and Self-Help Housing, and Section 504 Rural Housing Assistance grants: The proposal aims to eliminate most rural housing grants and direct-loan programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), eliminating funding for the Multifamily Preservation and Revitalization demonstration, Section 502 Direct Homeownership Loans, Section 514/516 Farm Worker Housing Loans and Grants, Section 523 Mutual and Self-Help Housing, and Section 504 Rural Housing Assistance grants and loans
|
|
National Housing Trust Fund: The budget proposes eliminating the national Housing Trust Fund (HTF), the first new housing resource in a generation exclusively targeted to help build and preserve housing affordable to people with the lowest incomes, including those experiencing homelessness.
|
Section 521: Essentially, the only funding for housing under USDA that remains in the proposal is the Section 521 Rural Rental Assistance, which would be funded at $1.407 billion and the guaranteed loan programs that use fees to offset any federal costs and do not tend to serve the lowest-income households |
|
Tenant-Based Rental Assistance: The proposal would cut funding for tenant-based rental assistance (TBRA) as his request for $22.244 is not sufficient to renew contract obligations, which would result in the loss of thousands of vouchers.
|
|
|
Project-Based Rental Housing: While the proposal offers a $274 million increase from FY19, this is also not sufficient to renew all existing project-based rental assistance (PBRA) contracts
|
|
|
Public Housing: The Public Housing Capital Fund takes a huge hit under this plan as it would eliminate this funding altogether (previously funded at $2.775 billion in FY19) and nearly cuts in half the the Operating Fund from $4.65 billion in FY19 to $2.86 billion, or 38%. Instead, the Administration's proposal requests $100 million for the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) to convert more public housing into housing vouchers and PBRA.
|
|
|
Homelessness: The proposal calls for $34 million in cuts to the HUD Homeless Assistance Grants.
|
|
|
Fair Housing: The budget would cut the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) by $3 million.
|
|
|
Homelessness: The proposal calls for $34 million in cuts to the HUD Homeless Assistance Grants.
|
|
|
Fair Housing: The budget would cut the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) by $3 million.
|
|
|
202: The budget cuts $34 million from the Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program
|
|
|
811: the proposal cuts $27 million from the Section 811 Housing for People with Disabilities
|
|
|
HOPWA: The proposal would cut $63 million in funding for the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) program
|
|
