Cuts in federal block grants will hit poor cities hardest

If President Bush has his way, a federal grants program that has been the lifeblood of economically distressed cities like Youngstown will be slashed by a fourth, and another program that is designed to regenerate brownfield sites and provide homeownership training will cease to exist. Bush must be made to understand that reducing the federal budget deficit on the backs of poor cities is bad public policy.
The president's $2.77 trillion budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 is, not surprisingly, chock full of spending increases for the military and the war on global terrorism. It also calls for significant cuts in many domestic programs. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would suffer a reduction of 30 percent in its allocation. HUD is well known to cities like Youngstown and Warren because of its Community Development Block Grant program, which is used to fund low-income housing programs, blight removal and job-creation strategies.
This year, $4.2 billion is earmarked for the community development grants and $60 million is set aside for brownfields and homeownership training. For 2006-07, President Bush is proposing to combine the two programs into one -- it would still be called the Community Development Block Grant program -- with a budget of $3 billion. Such a major reduction will undermine efforts by Youngstown and Warren to deal with persistently high unemployment, a growing population of residents on fixed incomes and deteriorating neighborhoods.
Past cuts
There already have been cuts in CDBG allocations to states and local communities. In 2005, Ohio received $181 million, while for the current fiscal year which ends Sept. 30 the state is expected to get $163 million. With the reorganization and funding reduction that the president is proposing for 2006-07, Ohio would sustain a 20 percent cut, to $130 million.
On the day of President Bush's inauguration in January 2005, we warned of the havoc his plans to slash funding for HUD would cause in cities with a high poverty rate and crumbling housing stock.
We suggested that a Washington Post story about Bush's plan to drastically shrink HUD's $8 billion community branch should send shockwaves through the Mahoning Valley. We urged then Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey, a Democrat who had endorsed Republican Bush for re-election and appeared with several times with him during his campaign swings through Ohio, to talk to the president about his plans for HUD.
We don't know whether McKelvey, who publicly boasted about having a friend in the White House, said anything to Bush or White House staffers, but it is clear that the administration has not thought this through. McKelvey, who left office on Dec. 31, is still in Youngstown and could be of use to Mayor Jay Williams.
Williams served as director of the Youngstown Community Development Agency in the McKelvey administration and has first-hand knowledge of how dependent the city is on funding from HUD. He should seek McKelvey's help in making the case to the White House.