Housing funding tabbed for cuts
City officials say Trump’s budget hurts the needy
This story is part of an ongoing series on how President Donald Trump’s proposed budget will affect Arizona. To read other installments, go to politics .azcentral.com.
President Donald Trump’s budget outline targets for elimination two programs that Valley cities and towns have long relied on to help their neediest residents.
The possible demise of the Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships programs is cause for alarm, local officials said.
Phoenix, for instance, used the more than $14 million in CDBG money
it received this fiscal year to fund its fair-housing program, rehabilitate homes, counsel landlords and tenants, repair infrastructure, provide downpayment assistance and pay for related staff positions, according to a city spokeswoman.
Phoenix officials declined to comment on the proposed losses, saying they didn’t want to “speculate” on a budget that hadn’t been formally approved. But other city leaders indicated the cuts would be disastrous, challenging the administration’s claim that the CDBG program in particular is “not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results.”
“The CDBG program was put in place by a Republican president, and it’s been a success story throughout the country,” said Scott Butler, Mesa’s deputy city manager.
Mesa, which annually receives more than $6 million in CDBG funding, has used the money to combat blight, expand a facility for people with development disabilities and construct a center for mothers with substance-abuse problems.
“We see this funding as a multiplier, because we’re able to use it in combination with city, developer and community non-profit funds for economic-development efforts, housing — the list goes on and on,” Butler said.
Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell said without CDBG and HOME funds, his city would “not have projects such as Valor on Eighth, which supports our veteran families, or Apache ASL, which is home to many deaf and hard-of-hearing seniors. We’ve used these monies for permanent supportive housing for dozens of homeless people, many of whom now have jobs and have moved into their own homes.”
Tempe expected to receive nearly $1.4 million in CDBG funds and about $303,000 in HOME funds in the coming year, according to the city. “Striking these funds would affect the most vulnerable of Tempe’s residents and cause extreme hardship,” Mitchell said.
In Avondale, roughly $575,000 a year in CDBG funds has helped revitalize the city’s historic core by making sidewalks compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, upgrading aging utility infrastructure and providing low-interest loans to small businesses. The funds also aid low-income residents with emergency home repairs, such as fixing air-conditioners, electrical systems or plumbing.
“We count on that money,” Avondale Mayor Kenn Weise said. “It’s money that those residents have paid into the government, and those funds come back to them.”
Goodyear Councilman Bill Stipp, who sat on the Maricopa County CDBG advisory committee, said funding throughout the county goes to “areas that need it the most.”
“When you look at Guadalupe and lower-income areas of the county, like Wickenburg ... those communities have been using that money to rebuild homes, to make repairs so (low-income residents) can stay in the homes that they are in,” Stipp said.
Carin Imig, Peoria’s community-assistance manager, said the Trump administration’s claims that the CDBG and HOME programs are failing to serve their intended populations are “preposterous.” Peoria gets about $773,000 in CDBG funds and $81,000 in HOME funds annually.
“The city utilizes CDBG and HOME funding almost 100 percent for income-qualifying citizens and residents,” she said. “In our city, Habitat for Humanity would be one of the largest agencies to lose this funding, which would jeopardize our ability to increase the availability of affordable housing.”
Tolleson Mayor Anna Tovar called the rationale behind the cuts “nonsense.”
“I would invite them to come to a city and see these neighborhoods and see how they’ve helped our most needy,” she said. Next: Funding for Luke Air Force Base.