President Donald Trump’s proposed budget was expected to affect every corner of the United States, including Syracuse.

And while the proposal was initially expected to eliminate or completely cut funding for major social programs, some of Syracuse’s common councilors are pleasantly surprised with a new congressional budget that rejects many of the Trump administration’s ideas for cuts.

The Syracuse community relies heavily on federally-funded social programs that alleviate the effects of poverty and fight homelessness. Programs such as Community Development Block Grants and HOME Investment Partnership funds help city officials provide affordable housing for low- and moderate- income Syracuse residents.

Trump initially wanted to completely eliminate the CDBG program in Fiscal Year 2018-19. But Syracuse’s Common Council on Monday approved a request to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for about $4 million in CDBG funds and about $1 million in HOME Investment Partnership grants. And those CDBG figures are subject to change.

Stephanie Pasquale, director of the city’s department of neighborhood and business development, said she’s optimistic Syracuse will receive an increase in CDBG funds under the budget approved by Congress last week. What she doesn’t know is how much that increase will be, Pasquale said.

“I’ve been doing this for about 18 years, and I can’t recall,” Pasquale said of the last time CDBG received additional funds in the federal budget, opposed to cuts. “I think when I started here, we were getting more than $10 million a year.”

Originally, Trump proposed cutting the entire CDBG program next fiscal year. Instead, the $1.3 trillion budget bill passed by congressional leaders boosted the block grant program’s funding by $305 million. In Syracuse, CDBG grants are used to fund emergency repairs and other costs of homeownership.

In the president’s original budget proposal, HUD was going to receive an $8.8 billion or 18.3 percent funding cut. Originally, Common Councilor Joe Driscoll said those funding cuts to CDBG were among his top concerns in regard to Trump’s proposal.

The city’s council initially budgeted for an anticipated 10 percent decrease in CDBG funding next year. But with the congressional bill that Trump reluctantly signed last week, Driscoll said he would applaud the administration if those funds actually increase locally.

“The Community Development Block Grants fund a lot of the people that are doing the most important work, in my opinion, in Syracuse,” Driscoll said.

Several organizations receive CDBG funds allocated by Syracuse. At present, Home HeadQuarters, Inc. would be the largest recipient of CDBG grants in Syracuse with about 45 percent of total funding in the city’s current Fiscal Year 2018-19 budget draft.

Home HeadQuarters, Inc. is a nonprofit and Syracuse-based housing agency. The organization’s mission is to create housing opportunities to help improve upstate New York communities.

Karen Schroeder, chief communications officer of the nonprofit, said CDBG is critical for helping Syracuse residents.

“It’s a really important program, especially here in Syracuse, to mitigate some of the housing issues here in the city,” Schroeder said.

Latoya Allen, common councilor of the 4th district, which includes portions of Syracuse University and some census tracts with high levels of concentrated black and Hispanic poverty, said she’s excited about the CDBG funds allocated in the congressional bill.

“We need it the most, right here in Syracuse,” Allen said. She said the money could be used to better help some local nonprofits and social programs, such as Home HeadQuarters, Inc.

Other aspects of the Trump administration’s budget priorities, though, were still concerning to local leaders. Driscoll said he’s worried about the White House’s support for charter schools. United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a strong proponent of charters, which are publicly funded schools that operate independently of state school systems. Driscoll said he fears public schools could be cut out of some funds, in favor of charters.

Sally Johnston, advocacy coordinator of AccessCNY, an organization that aids more than 3,000 people primarily with disabilities in central New York, said she was disturbed by Trump’s proposal to cut Medicaid, funds for food stamps and other healthcare programs.

And some nonprofits in the area, such as Home HeadQuarters, Inc., are looking to diversify revenue sources under the Trump administration, opposed to relying so heavily on federal funds.

Paul Joslyn, executive director of AccessCNY, said it’s very hard to anticipate future policy changes that could affect funding. About 90 percent of AccessCNY’s funding comes from the government, mostly in the form of Medicaid, Joslyn said. He said the organization is actively trying to diversify its funding sources.

“That’s a high percentage, but if we can lower that by even 5 percent, that makes a big difference and helps to mitigate that risk a little bit,” Joslyn said.

Published on March 26, 2018 at 10:23 pm