Federal Budget Cuts Hit Home - and Homes

Budget discussions in Washington could have real impact right here in Central Jersey.

The president’s proposal cuts about a billion dollars from the Housing and Urban Development budget, including $300 million from the Community Development Block Grant program, which provides cash to local governments to provide housing. Republican proposals call for more extensive cuts to the entire HUD program – including a dramatic $100 billion from fiscal year 2011 (the current budget year).

The block grant cuts could mean rent hikes or service cuts at some federally funded facilities at a time when need for HUD housing is greatest. According to the Center for Housing Policy’s Housing Landscape 2011 report, “nearly one in four working households spends more than half of their income on housing costs.” Perhaps more significantly, falling home values have done nothing to alleviate the problem as “housing affordability worsened significantly for working owners and renters between 2008 and 2009.”

In New Jersey, 29 percent pay more than half of their income toward housing costs – which was a slight increase over the 2008 figure.

Cuts to HUD block grants will only exacerbate this problem. The block grants help low-income workers, seniors and the disabled afford rental housing.

The program has been an important part of the success of Charleston Place and Oakwoods, according to Karen Scalera, executive director of the South Brunswick Community Development Corporation, which runs the two housing facilities in South Brunswick.

It not only provides rent subsidies – up to 70 percent of rent – but makes it possible for Charleston Place to hire a service coordinator to help residents find programs that can make their lives easier. HUD money also subsidizes small construction and maintenance projects and bulk food purchases for the frailest residents, she said.

The HUD grants help the working poor, seniors and the disabled through out the region at facilities run by Community Options and Presbyterian Homes and Services in East Windsor, Lawrence Housing and ARC of Mercer County in Lawrence Township, National Church Residences in East Brunswick and CIL Woods in South Brunswick.

The National Alliance of HUD Tenants says the Republican plan – the aforementioned $100 billion – could leave nearly three-quarters of a million tenants cut off from federal assistance. The Obama budget, while less harsh, would still slash housing subsidies, directly contradicting his State of the Union promise not to balance the federal budget on the backs of the most vulnerable.

No one can argue against being more responsible in our budgeting practices, but there are better and less onerous ways to balance future budgets, including targeted tax increases, large cuts to our bloated military and an end to unnecessary corporate subsidies. But poor people who live in subsidized housing have few people speaking for him on Capitol Hill, unlike corporate lobbyists and defense contractors.