Federal cuts to housing program would impact Columbia affordable housing options

Last week the White House released its proposed executive budget for the 2018 fiscal year, which included a $6.2 billion, or 13.2 percent, decrease in funds to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Within the HUD funding, the proposed budget would eliminate the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Government officials said this would total $3 billion in savings.

“These funds really are our main funding source helping our central city areas in need of infrastructure, affordable housing and job training,” said Randy Cole, Columbia’s housing programs supervisor.

Cole said each year Columbia gets about $830,000 in CDBG funds. He said last year that money helped about 250 low-income households.

Right now, a portion of the city’s CDBG money is going toward building seven affordable homes on Lynn Street in central Columbia.

In the proposed budget, the White House argues state and local governments “are better positioned to serve their communities based on local needs and priorities.”

The following was written in the HUD section of the proposed budget: “The Federal Government has spent over $150 billion on this block grant since its inception in 1974, but the program is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results. The Budget devolves community and economic development activities to the State and local level, and redirects Federal resources to other activities.”

Cole said without the CDBG program, finding funding from other sources to continue projects would be difficult.

“The only other options would be looking for other grants that may be out there, foundations, any kind of local sources,” he said. “But as we all know, there’s budget strains across the board for all those different entities, so I think it would mean a significant ramping down of projects here.”

Cole said if the program were to be eliminated, Columbia could continue doing projects for at most another two years. He said money from a loan portfolio program could help the city continue for possibly another decade.

“We’ve seen this in the past, these programs up for being cut, and I’m certain that there will be additional discussion,” he said. “There’s a lot of support for these programs, because they impact so many communities nationwide and benefit so many different constituencies.”