[Occupymendocino] Trump offers no new funds for homeless even as he pressures cities

[Richard Karch]

FINANCE & TAX
Trump offers no new funds for homeless even as he pressures cities
The White House budget proposal released Monday calls for $2.8 billion for homelessness assistance grants in fiscal 2021.

President Donald Trump. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
By KATY O'DONNELL
02/10/2020 06:01 PM EST
	
President Donald Trump, who for months has blasted Los Angeles, San Francisco and other big cities struggling to deal with homelessness, is offering no additional federal funds to deal with the crisis.

The White House budget proposal released Monday calls for $2.8 billion for homelessness assistance grants in fiscal 2021, roughly in line with current levels. The budget would slash the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s overall funding by 15 percent to $47.9 billion

Trump's decision not to request additional homelessness funding comes after a campaign of pressuring local Democratic officials to get a handle on the surging rate of unsheltered homelessness in cities along the West Coast.

“After months of bluster, threats and feigned concern from Trump and Secretary [Ben] Carson for the country’s increased homelessness, they propose flat funding for homeless assistance grants,” Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said in an email.

While the budget would not increase homelessness funding over current enacted levels, HUD officials pointed out that federal funding has increased in recent years and faulted cities for failing to stop a spike in people sleeping on the streets.

“Over the past four years our federal funding to reduce homelessness has grown by over $200 million, reducing homelessness in most of the country, while the problem has grown in cities that have not focused on reducing local barriers to creating affordable housing,” HUD spokesperson Brad Bishop said.

The statement echoed the position Trump took in a January tweet, in which he wrote: "The homeless situation in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many other Democrat Party run cities throughout the Nation is a state and local problem, not a federal problem...."