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Despite a proposed 13 percent budget cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, recently confirmed HUD Secretary Ben Carson said he plans for the agency to continue “programs that are going very well.”
While that doesn’t mean the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program or the HOME Investment Partnerships Program—both eliminated under President Trump’s budget blueprint—Carson said the good parts of these programs will likely continue, just under different names.
“If you look at various budget stories, it says we’re going to eliminate HOME, we’re going to eliminate CDBG, this, that and the other,” Carson said during a press conference in Miami. “What you need to concentrate on is: The parts of these programs that are functioning well—and that are maintaining people—are going to be preserved. There may be a different nomenclature. We may not call it the same thing …We are clearly going to maintain these programs that are going very well.”
While in Miami, Carson toured the Villa Aurora apartment complex, a 75-unit project that serves Miami-Dade County’s homeless agency, as well as some of its low-income residents. The complex cost about $28 million to build--$1.5 million of which came from the HOME program.
HOME is just one of the many HUD programs that would end under the latest budget proposal which, if implemented, would cause Miami a loss of $4 million in funding per year. According to Ronald Book, Chairman of Miami-Dade’s homeless board, HOME currently provides rental assistance to 300 local women and children.
In all, the budget blueprint proposes cutting HUD’s budget by $6.2 billion in 2018, including cuts to CDBG, Choice Neighborhoods, and the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program, though Carson has said previously—in an email to staffers—that the cuts were not official.
“Please understand that budget negotiations currently underway are very similar to those that have occurred in previous years,” Carson wrote. “This budget process is a lengthy, back and forth process that will continue. It’s unfortunate that preliminary numbers were published but, please take some comfort in knowing that starting numbers are rarely final numbers. Rest assured, we are working hard to support those programs that help so many Americans, focus on our core mission, and ensure that every tax dollar is spent wisely and effectively.”
Carson spent two days touring the city’s federally funded housing communities with wife Candy Carson.
