Sound the alarm: HUD will face cuts under Carson

Spare Change News co-founder and columnist James Shearer. File photo

For those of you who thought homelessness and poverty couldn’t get any worse, strap in.

The new head of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson barely got his feet warm when the Trump administration revealed what’s in store for those on the bottom of the food chain.

If the leaks out of the White House are to be believed, the knife will be taken to HUD to the tune of $6 billion. Now think about that for a moment. This means public housing support, which has already been squeezed to the gills, will barely be able to breath. You think it’s tough for families to get Section 8 vouchers now? What about elderly and disabled housing, home programs, block grants that provide services such as meal programs and programs that clean up properties in low-income neighborhoods? All of these programs will either face deep cuts or be gone.

This is all part of the fiscal year 2018 budget plan that will cut a grand total of $54 billion and give every last dime to the military. What was that about America First? Or Make America Great Again? More like keep making America poor again. And what does the new boss of HUD think of all this?

Well, this is the same Ben Carson who thinks public assistance is a crutch for folks. But let’s not blame all of this on Carson or Trump: the reality is that things have been trending this way for years as HUD, its overseers in the White House and Congress have continuously come up with programs to avoid spending the capital needed to address homelessness and poverty. God forbid they have to take care of us “poor folk” if it means less money for them.

Income equality does not exist to them. Instead, they’d rather continue lining their own pockets and building a war machine. There have been peeps at the agency saying there will still be enough funding so people don’t literally wind up on the streets. Newsflash, Ben: people are already there.

So what do we do now, you ask? Well, first we have to come to the realization that those in D.C. don’t really give a damn about us; they haven’t for a very long time. We must stop fighting among and against ourselves. We must talk, organize and rise. Because they’re not going to stop doing what they’re doing no matter who’s in the Oval Office. So let’s stop being black and white or immigrant or gay or straight—let’s be us and fight.