Oakland’s affordable housing threatened by Trump’s proposed $6.2 billion budget cut to HUD

Wealthy Heritage Foundation members demand massive budget cuts to domestic non-defense programs

by Lynda Carson

Protest-Trump-HUD-budget-cuts-Chicago-032117-by-Tyler-LaRiviere-web-300x200, Oakland’s affordable housing threatened by Trump’s proposed $6.2 billion budget cut to HUD, Local News & Views
On March 21, Chicagoans protest the enormous cuts Trump’s budget proposes for HUD. The accompanying story reports, “According to activists, cuts especially to HUD mirror conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation’s “Blueprint for Reform” that calls for the ending of HUD in 10 years. In Chicago and around the country, protesters are naming and aiming their wrath at local Heritage Foundation trustees. – Photo: Tyler LaRiviere

Oakland – The Trump regime’s proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) threatens the renters in around 155 low-income affordable housing projects in Oakland with higher rents or eviction from their homes. The proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to HUD will disproportionately impact Black women and their families because such a high percentage of them rely on HUD’s subsidized housing programs.

Trump calls his budget “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” and sure enough, Americans with the greatest need are the first ones to be placed at risk of higher rents and homelessness, according to released budget documents. Thousands of poor, disabled and elderly HUD subsidized renters in Oakland are at risk of higher rents and homelessness due to the Trump regime’s scheme to grab $54 billion in funds from our nation’s non-defense domestic programs and shift them to the military and security.

In the Bay Area, according to HUD, the Oakland Housing Authority (OHA) has 13,422 federally subsidized housing units in its Section 8 inventory and 2,122 units in its low rent inventory, formerly known as public housing units.

Trump calls his budget “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” and sure enough, Americans with the greatest need are the first ones to be placed at risk of higher rents and homelessness, according to released budget documents.

The housing crisis is so bad, according to public documents, that community wide there are 3,500 people on the wait list for the Housing Choice Voucher Program (formerly called Section 8 voucher program) in Oakland, and 3,000 people are on the wait list for public housing. Both wait lists are presently closed.

In project-based voucher apartments managed by the OHA, there are 6,000 people on the wait list, which is also presently closed. In public housing apartments managed by a third party in Oakland, there are 4,477 people on the wait list, and the wait list is open. And in project-based voucher apartments managed by a third party in Oakland, there are 28,325 people on the wait list, which is also open.

The Trump regime’s disastrous proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to HUD programs include massive cuts to housing programs for seniors, the disabled, people with HIV/AIDS, veterans and low-income families. The proposed budget cuts also target the Home Program and Community Development Block Grants for termination.

Low-income renters in Oakland placed at risk of higher rents or eviction

Low-income renters being placed at risk of major rent increases or eviction in Oakland’s subsidized housing projects because of Trump’s proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to HUD include renters residing at Allen Temple Gardens (senior housing), Bancroft Senior Homes, Beth Eden (senior housing), Bishop Nichols Senior Housing, California Hotel, City Towers Apartments #1, Clinton Commons, Coolidge Court (housing for disabled people or those living with HIV/AIDS), EC Reems Gardens, EE Cleveland Manor, Eastmont Court, Effie’s House, Fruitvale Transit Village, Glen Brook Terrace, Harrison Hotel, Homes Now In The Community (disabled or HIV/AIDS), International Boulevard Family Housing, Irene Cooper Terrace (senior housing), JJ Richard Terrace (senior housing), Las Bougainvilleas (senior housing), Lincoln Court Senior Housing, Madison Lofts, Merritt Crossings (senior housing), Northgate Apartments, Northgate Terrace (senior housing), Orchards on Foothill (senior housing), Otterbein Manor (senior housing), Percy Abram Jr. Senior Apartments, Posada de Colores (senior housing), Providence House (disabled or HIV/AIDS), Rosa Parks House (disabled or HIV/AIDS), Rose of Sharon (senior housing) and many other low-income subsidized housing projects in Oakland.

As reported in Poor Magazine and the Indy Bay News Wire, tenant activists are presently urging low-income renters in HUD’s subsidized housing programs to contact their representatives to speak up in support of those programs, and to speak out against the proposed budget cuts.

The Trump regime’s disastrous proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to HUD programs include massive cuts to housing programs for seniors, the disabled, people with HIV/AIDS, veterans and low-income families.

In addition to the $54 billion in budget cuts that Trump wants, additional massive budget cuts to the federal government ranging from $6 trillion to $8.6 trillion and to as much as over $10 trillion during the next 10 years, are being proposed by the right-wing fascist organization called the Heritage Foundation.

Reportedly in Chicago recently, around 100 housing activists have targeted Anthony Saliba, a trustee on the board of the Heritage Foundation, because the proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to HUD mirror the Heritage Foundation’s budget cutting proposals in its “Blueprint for Reform.” Other tenant activists recently protested the cuts at the Trump Tower in New York. Additionally, HUD tenants are presently demanding that Congress reject Trump’s “death budget,” and in recent months protests have been held at a building partially owned by Trump in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, HUD Secretary Ben Carson has become a human shield lately for Trump and reportedly is trying to calm tenant activists and HUD subsidized renters by claiming that Trump will replace the HUD funding he is grabbing at a later date in his infrastructure plans. Since Trump is a notorious liar, no one believes this for a heartbeat, except apparently HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

Wealthy Heritage Foundation members demand massive budget cuts to domestic non-defense programs

According to the latest 2015 990 tax filing of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., their gross receipts for that year were $116,236,337. After subtracting their liabilities from their assets, they had a whopping fund balance of $226,286,115.

The mission of the Heritage Foundation is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principal of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense. In other words, the Heritage Foundation promotes a militaristic right-wing fascist corporate dictatorship being run by billionaires who try to masquerade behind the American flag.

Two wealthy high ranking trustees of the Heritage Foundation demanding budget cuts to HUD reside in the Bay Area. One of them is Jerry Hume (George H. Hume) of San Francisco. Basic American Foods and Basic American Inc. are two large corporations he owns. Jerry Hume has several products that people can boycott in protest against the activities of the Heritage Foundation.

Jerry Hume also presently serves as the vice chairman of the San Francisco Opera Association, despite the fact that the recent $54 billion in budget cuts being promoted by Trump and the Heritage Foundation target the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for termination. People should demand that Jerry Hume resign from the Opera Association considering those cuts.

The Heritage Foundation promotes a militaristic right-wing fascist corporate dictatorship being run by billionaires who try to masquerade behind the American flag.

Nersi Nazari, another trustee of the Heritage Foundation, resides in a spacious four-bedroom home and property in Atherton that is valued at $7,070,538. Nazari spends BIG MONEY on political campaign contributions to the Republican Party and is the owner of several large corporations.

Polls show President Donald J. Trump is about as popular right now as a rattle snake in a bird sanctuary. His menacing image appears on a billboard in Phoenix, as he threatens the poor, elderly and disabled with a proposal to slash $6.2 billion from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in what is now known as the “death budget.”

Tenant activists are urging HUD’s subsidized renters to protest the proposed $6.2 billion in budget cuts to HUD in the effort to save their homes.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule@yahoo.com.