For Immediate Release: Thursday, March 16th, 2017
Contact: Beth McConnell, Policy Director, 215-732-5829 x 110 or cell 267.918.7207
The Trump Budget is Devastating for Community Development in Philadelphia
It’s bad for small businesses, bad for families, bad for communities.
Today, the Trump Administration released a budget blueprint that, if enacted, would be devastating for Philadelphians. The Trump budget is an attack on families, small businesses and communities in Philadelphia.
The blueprint proposes eliminating the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), which would end popular and effective programs and their staff that make our neighborhood commercial corridors clean, safe and attractive, and which help small businesses become more stable and grow. The Trump budget is bad for small businesses and Philadelphia’s economy.
Eliminating CDBG would also end the Neighborhood Advisory Committee (NAC) program, ending funding for 20 organizations and their staff in Philadelphia that connect residents to help saving their homes from foreclosure, keeping the heat on in winter, and accessing a range of employment, education, health and other services. The Trump budget is bad for low-income communities.
Eliminating CDBG and the HOME program would also dramatically reduce funds available for affordable homes. Fewer new affordable homes will be built, repaired or rehabilitated. At a time when more than 100,000 Philadelphians are searching for help finding a safe, affordable home, Trump’s budget would exacerbate our affordable home crisis. Housing counseling in Philadelphia would also be eliminated if CDBG were to be zeroed out, which would lead to more people losing their homes to mortgage and tax foreclosure, unscrupulous lending practices, and would thwart first time homebuyer programs. The Trump budget is bad for families and individuals seeking housing security.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. The Trump budget also proposes eliminating funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which would end creative place-making programs that use arts to revitalize disinvested communities.
Funding for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that provide lending to small businesses and non-profits that can’t get financing from traditional banks would also be eliminated, and so would funding for capacity-building non-profits that support Philadelphia’s CDCs.
This budget proposal sends a clear message from the Trump Administration that Philadelphians—and cities—don’t matter to them. PACDC, our members and allies will fight to stop this inequitable budget in its tracks.
The Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations (PACDC) is a membership association of more than 120 CDCs and other organizations working to create equitable Philadelphia neighborhoods. Follow us @PhillyCDCs