This month, President Trump released a “budget blueprint” that calls for more than $6 billion in cuts to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs – a massive rollback of federal investment in home affordability. If it feels like we’ve been here before, consider that 20 years ago, the affordable housing community and the people and families we serve were grappling with a 20% budget cut to HUD made under then-President Clinton and a Republican Congress.
Last week, CHC members met with our California Congressional delegation to outline what these cuts would mean in Golden State communities at a time when Californians are facing record high rental costs.
When we talked to CHC’s founding members at the start of our 20th Anniversary year, we heard universally that bringing the “big tent” perspective of the housing community together and sending a unified message to Washington was a crucial role they envisioned for CHC. We also heard that the opportunity CHC provides to be directly engaged in policy issues is one of the reasons CHC membership has proven to be a rewarding experience going on three decades.
At the state level, CHC members are active in educating policymakers about the affordability crisis facing Californians and the opportunities for California to turn around the state’s backwards and broken housing policies. Abode Communities took part in an Assembly Housing Committee hearing in Los Angeles last Friday, emphasizing that state leadership is even more crucial when proposed federal tax law changes would widen the funding gap that has stymied affordable developments.
As founding member Michael Costa says, the education CHC provides to lawmakers makes a significant difference for our industry: ” Three to four years after CHC started there was hardly a Congressperson or Senator who didn’t know who CHC was…We’ve been wildly successful.”
With twenty years of advocacy under our belt and with members’ generous contributions and unparalleled expertise in financing, building and operating affordable developments, CHC will continue to be California’s leading voice for investment and policy that strengthen communities and uplift families.
Sincerely,
Ray Pearl
CHC Executive Director
