The Washington Post has a big scoop about the early draft of the Trump Administration's budget for the Department of Housing Urban Development.
"The Trump administration has considered more than $6 billion in cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development," reports Jose A. DelReal.
Although the Trump Administration is still at a very speculative point in the budgetary process, DelReal's scoop reveals some of the administration's intentions toward the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"The plan would squeeze public housing support and end most federally funded community development grants, which provide services such as meal assistance and cleaning up abandoned properties in low-income neighborhoods," summarizes DelReal.
More specifically, about "$1.3 billion would be cut from the public housing capital fund, under the preliminary plan — when compared to funding in 2016 — and an additional $600 million would be cut from the public housing operating fund." The cuts for operational funding would hit city and state agencies the hardest, explains DelReal.
The Community Development Block Grant program, considered popular on both sides of the aisle in D.C. (and among local officials), would cut all of the $3 billion currently budgeted that program. The budget document does, however, allow for Community Development Block Grant funding to come from a source outside of the HUD budget. The budget proposal would also cut HOME Investment Partnerships Program and the Choice Neighborhoods program.
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Journal of the American Planning Association