HUD rejects Governor Newsom’s request to assist the homeless with additional funding

HUD rejects Governor Newsom’s request to assist the homeless with additional funding

By Lynda Carson - September 23, 2019

San Francisco - In recent weeks right-wing fascist President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the homeless (the unhoused) population in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. However, in response to California Governor Newsom’s request for additional housing assistance funding in housing options for people experiencing homelessness, Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson denied the request for additional funding.

According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), “HUD Secretary Ben Carson rejected California Governor Gavin Newsom’s request for increased federal investment in housing options for people experiencing homelessness, in a letter published on September 18. The letter, written at the behest of President Trump in response to an earlier letter from Governor Newsom, said that California’s “overregulated housing market, [inefficient] allocation of resources, [and] policies that have weakened law enforcement” are to blame for the increase in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the state. Secretary Carson also faulted mental illness, illicit drug use, and California’s adoption of “sanctuary State and city policies” for increasing the state’s homeless population and straining federal, state and local resources.”

In Newsom’s letter to Trump he requests an additional 50,000 housing vouchers, including a combination of Section 8 housing vouchers (Housing Choice Vouchers) and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers (VASH) for the homeless (unhoused), and he requests for an increase in the value of the housing assistance vouchers to account for the high cost of rents.

Newsom also wants the federal government to create a new housing assistance program that is based on best practices to incentivize landlords to work with voucher holders to find stable housing. Unfortunately, under federal law landlords are not required to accept Section 8 tenants as renters, and many landlords across the nation discriminate against people with housing assistance vouchers, especially Section 8 voucher holders.

Additionally, in HUD’s rejection letter to Newsom, among other things HUD Secretary Ben Carson blames the homeless problem in California by claiming that California has undercut the ability of cops to harass the homeless population with the enforcement of quality-of-life laws, or to remove or demolish encampments, and connect the unhoused with supportive services they need to get off the streets. As the HUD Secretary rants and raves in his letter to Newsom, he goes on to also blame Sanctuary cities for the homeless problem, including the migrants residing in housing that the Trump Administration believes that others should have instead.

The Trump Regime is pushing for the cops to be free to roust the homeless population from the streets of America, to round them up, and lock them up in internment camps.

This appears to be more of the typical racist propaganda coming from a Trump Regime that is totally under the influence of the extreme right-wing fascist Council for National Policy.

The NLIHC reports that in San Francisco from 2013 through 2017, calls made to 911 that were complaints about the homeless grew dramatically despite negligible growth in the homeless population. According to an article in the American Sociological Review, “Drawing on an analysis of 3.9 million 911 and 311 call records and participant observation alongside police officers, social workers, and homeless men and women residing on the streets of San Francisco, this article elaborates a model of “complaint-oriented policing” to explain additional causes and consequences of policing visible poverty. Situating the police within a broader bureaucratic field of poverty governance, I demonstrate how policing aimed at the poor can be initiated by callers, organizations, and government agencies, and how police officers manage these complaints in collaboration and conflict with health, welfare, and sanitation agencies.”

With the cops going after the homeless, in addition to the Trump Regime pushing for more cops to round up the homeless, homeless deaths are on the rise.

Additionally, according to a release from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Trump’s proposed “Housing Finance Reform Plan” has very serious implications for millions of Americans including those aspiring to be homeowners in addition to those wanting to be renters. According to Congresswoman Waters, “One of the most egregious parts of this proposal—and one which could cause significant damage for low-income persons and communities of color—is the replacement of the affordable housing goals with a fee that would fail to adequately support affordable housing. This would hamper the ability of millions of underserved families to achieve the dream of homeownership. I look forward to addressing these concerns with administration officials directly when they testify before the Committee.”

Making matters worse, reportedly HUD & the Trump Regime have made changes to the 2019 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Continuum of Care (CoC) program meant to assist the unhoused (homeless population). In a letter from 61 Democratic lawmakers on September 19 to HUD Secretary Ben Carson, they oppose the HUD Secretary’s attack on the Housing First model that non profit housing organizations use to house the unhoused. The letter from the lawmakers to Secretary Ben Carson states that the NOFA undermines both the successful Housing First model and protections for transgender people experiencing homelessness. “These changes invite discrimination and could result in trans people being denied access to critical homeless services, forcing them to remain on the street and putting them at further risk of physical violence and abuse.” Additionally, the lawmakers urged HUD to reinstate provisions included in previous NOFA funding grant cycles.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, transgender deaths are on the rise and in 2018 advocates tracked 28 deaths of transgender people due to violence in the U.S., and most were black transgender souls that were killed.

In recent days in San Francisco, HUD Secretary Ben Carson made some disparaging remarks against transgender people, and he blamed the media for firestorm that erupted afterwards.

Once again, this reveals that the fascist Trump Regime is under the influence of the notorious Council for National Policy, and the racist, homophobic comments coming from members of the Trump Regime have become the norm since Trump mysteriously came to power in the White House.

Meanwhile, according to Rent Cafe, “The average rent for an apartment in Oakland is $2,924, a 9% increase compared to the previous year.”

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com

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