Outside view of the Bloomington Housing Authority building.
(Donnie Burgess, WFIU/WTIU News)
The Trump administration’s recent cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have those who rely on federal housing funding concerned.
The Bloomington Housing Authority (BHA) is responsible for providing financial assistance to low-income residents looking for affordable housing.
Nathan Ferreira, executive director of BHA, told WFIU/WTIU News the administration has only cut HUD staff members so far, but even those cuts make the process of delivering vouchers and subsidies at the local level less efficient and less effective.
The Trump administration has not extended cuts to subsidies or grants yet. Ferreira said if those cuts happen, the consequences for low-income residents in Bloomington would be much worse.
“If in fact there was a rental subsidy cut, we would absolutely be seeing people facing homelessness,” he said.
Ferreria is also concerned that any future cuts to federal grants would halt progress for projects such as the Chandler Child Care Center across from the Crestmont neighborhood and Kohr Community Flats, which is located at the old hospital site.
The Chandler Child Care Center will be two-floors: a daycare on the first and affordable housing units on the second.
Ferreira said local workers are already employed at these construction sites, childcare seats are waiting to be filled, and there’s a waitlist for those housing units.
“So, losing any amount of funds, including HOME and CDBG to mention a couple, would really put years of effort in jeopardy,” he said.
Several housing authority representatives from across the country, including Nathan Ferreira, visited Washington D.C. last week to encourage Indiana lawmakers to oppose further federal housing program cuts.
Ferreira said one positive is the federal government budget recently approved does not currently include larger cuts to HUD.
However, Ferreira said one challenging aspect of the executive branch is it appears to be acting independent of Congress in some ways, and Congress will need to potentially intervene if Trump decides to not distribute funds already approved by lawmakers.
Until further changes come down from the federal government, Ferreira said BHA will continue operating business as usual.
