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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

Trump Budget Would Increase Homelessness and Hardship in Every State, End Federal Role in Community Development

President Trump’s 2018 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposes deep cuts in rental assistance for families and other aid for the nation’s poorest urban and rural communities, which would shrink the supply of affordable housing and increase homelessness and other hardships across the country.

Overall, the President requests $40.7 billion for HUD programs in 2018, $7.4 billion (15 percent) below what policymakers recently approved for 2017.  The budget would:

  • Eliminate Housing Choice Vouchers for more than 250,000 low-income households.  The budget requests $17.6 billion to renew housing vouchers that families are using — $771 million less than policymakers provided for 2017 and $2.3 billion less than we estimate is needed to renew all vouchers in 2018.  Because the program mainly helps extremely low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and working families with children, the cuts would hit these groups hardest, increasing homelessness and other hardships, and undermining the stability that children need to thrive and succeed.
  • Slash public housing funding by $1.8 billion, or nearly 29 percent, compared to 2017.  Public housing already faces more than $26 billion in repair needs such as fixing leaky roofs or replacing outdated heating systems and electrical wiring.  Such massive cuts — on top of the 21 percent cut from 2010 to 2016 — would further jeopardize the health and safety of public housing’s 2.2 million residents and sharply accelerate the loss of affordable units.
  • Cut $133 million (5.6 percent) from homeless assistance grants, which are essential to communities’ efforts to prevent homelessness, help homeless families move quickly out of shelters and into stable homes, and reduce long-term or repeated homelessness among people with mental illness and other disabilities. 
  • Eliminate the HOME, Community Development Block Grant, and Choice Neighborhoods programs that give flexible aid to poor rural and urban communities.  Altogether, poor communities would lose more than $4.1 billion a year to improve basic infrastructure like streets and water and sewer lines, provide life-enriching services to youth and seniors, build and rehabilitate affordable housing for low-income residents, and promote economic development.  Rather than boost states’ and localities’ ability to help their residents live healthy and productive lives, the budget abandons communities that need federal resources.
  • Eliminate the National Housing Trust Fund, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently fund through fees and which provided $174 million in 2016 towards state and local efforts to develop affordable rental housing for those who struggle most to pay the rent and make ends meet.
TABLE 1
Potential Impact of Selected Trump Budget Proposals in 2018, by State
State Vouchers Cut Public Housing Funding Cut CDBG Funding Cut HOME Funding Cut
Alabama -3,597 -$54,767,366 -$40,317,546 -$12,608,415
Alaska -578 -$3,476,265 -$4,179,060 -$3,514,139
Arizona -2,520 -$8,713,168 -$49,340,319 -$15,556,394
Arkansas -2,458 -$15,587,874 -$23,383,029 -$7,834,971
California -35,713 -$59,672,352 -$355,155,848 -$127,465,266
Colorado -3,521 -$11,757,042 -$33,638,308 -$12,997,144
Connecticut -4,272 -$25,809,911 -$35,457,985 -$10,738,877
Delaware -535 -$4,328,271 -$6,387,002 -$4,076,831
District of Columbia -1,361 -$18,499,910 -$13,712,526 -$3,846,926
Florida -11,793 -$51,200,789 -$131,446,772 -$44,649,381
Georgia -6,455 -$53,514,040 -$76,646,698 -$25,150,071
Hawaii -1,147 -$10,095,427 -$12,146,910 -$5,244,009
Idaho -793 -$809,609 -$11,543,948 -$4,048,982
Illinois -10,734 -$107,266,201 -$148,835,620 -$40,493,529
Indiana -4,166 -$20,217,861 -$60,543,482 -$18,671,931
Iowa -2,400 -$3,324,681 -$33,067,707 -$7,952,367
Kansas -1,346 -$9,066,283 -$23,795,907 -$7,560,655
Kentucky -3,619 -$26,470,550 -$39,030,922 -$12,989,779
Louisiana -5,616 -$29,745,865 -$43,762,569 -$12,831,640
Maine -1,395 -$5,989,305 -$16,416,154 -$4,237,285
Maryland -5,533 -$39,793,668 -$44,837,017 -$12,403,502
Massachusetts -9,852 -$63,297,878 -$91,152,145 -$24,120,227
Michigan -6,520 -$30,595,838 -$110,916,626 -$28,578,548
Minnesota -3,695 -$23,072,400 -$47,712,884 -$13,324,982
Mississippi -2,964 -$12,472,274 -$26,662,031 -$8,026,289
Missouri -4,713 -$20,631,958 -$56,990,675 -$17,120,214
Montana -659 -$2,312,380 -$7,573,547 -$3,766,209
Nebraska -1,345 -$6,633,101 -$16,446,143 -$5,369,963
Nevada -1,740 -$6,158,312 -$19,892,671 -$8,794,181
New Hampshire -1,125 -$4,807,125 -$11,338,500 -$3,731,257
New Jersey -7,916 -$66,220,659 -$80,918,987 -$24,140,076
New Mexico -1,435 -$4,952,030 -$16,415,797 -$5,281,777
New York -26,530 -$409,387,940 -$286,644,708 -$91,483,440
North Carolina -6,767 -$50,748,361 -$71,274,248 -$25,575,557
North Dakota -771 -$1,704,012 -$4,943,879 -$3,327,831
Ohio -10,808 -$75,516,932 -$136,811,442 -$38,308,406
Oklahoma -2,803 -$15,068,656 -$24,494,715 -$9,959,097
Oregon -3,976 -$8,687,614 -$31,519,547 -$12,837,617
Pennsylvania -9,161 -$119,464,927 -$168,774,787 -$40,024,884
Rhode Island -1,100 -$14,082,489 -$15,111,006 -$4,937,774
South Carolina -2,952 -$20,802,707 -$34,501,179 -$11,930,988
South Dakota -630 -$1,402,586 -$6,415,199 -$3,328,807
Tennessee -4,148 -$48,284,687 -$45,339,513 -$17,152,704
Texas -17,346 -$71,462,208 -$215,552,829 -$63,482,756
Utah -1,290 -$1,818,135 -$19,403,540 -$6,421,788
Vermont -748 -$1,756,863 -$7,109,748 -$3,355,024
Virginia -5,410 -$30,429,734 -$50,603,961 -$18,071,810
Washington -6,128 -$21,208,383 -$51,210,420 -$18,759,905
West Virginia -1,630 -$7,368,660 -$18,598,161 -$5,323,388
Wisconsin -3,162 -$10,879,482 -$56,468,058 -$17,842,644
Wyoming -301 -$792,766 -$3,465,847 -$3,473,143
Total -265,050 -$1,813,500,000 -$3,000,000,000 -$950,000,000

Source: CBPP analysis of HUD and Office of Management and Budget data.

Note: Funding cuts are relative to estimated 2017 funding levels; housing voucher cuts are relative to the number of households assisted in 2016, with adjustments. National figures include data from U.S. territories.

In this budget, the Administration also seeks congressional authority to make sweeping policy changes that would weaken rental assistance programs and exacerbate hardship.  One proposal, for instance, would significantly increase assisted tenants’ rents in all HUD programs, thereby shifting more than $2.5 billion in program costs onto vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children.

Moreover, the cuts outlined above would likely be only the beginning of a downward slope in funding for housing and community development under the Trump blueprint, because this blueprint calls for even more severe cuts to overall funding for domestic programs over the coming decade. 

In devastating fashion, President Trump’s budget proposes to reverse the longstanding federal commitment to help at-risk families afford decent, stable homes and support low-income communities’ efforts to grow and prosper.  Moreover, it does so while proposing deep tax cuts that would primarily benefit America’s wealthiest households.