Kirk Brown

kirk.brown@independentmail.com

Upstate officials say President Donald Trump's plan to eliminate funding for community development block grants would cripple efforts to provide affordable housing and improve blighted neighborhoods.

As part of his effort to significantly increase military spending, Trump wants to cut the entire $3 billion that was allocated this year for the federal block grant program.

Officials with the city of Anderson, the city of Greenville and the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority received a total of nearly $3.8 million in block grant money this year and they were hoping to get a similar amount next year. Much of the money is used to build affordable housing, fix up or demolish substandard dwellings and for various other improvements in struggling neighborhoods.

"These dollars are for the people who need it the most," Anderson Mayor Terrence Roberts said.

Block grants make up more than half of the budget for the city of Anderson's community development department. The department has provided grants and loans to residents to rehabilitate 33 homes in the past five years, said director Erica Craft at a public hearing Thursday evening on the city's block grant action for next year. No residents showed up at the hearing.

Nationally, funding for block grants has shrunk by 37 percent since 2000 when adjusted for inflation and population growth, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan research and policy institute.

Roberts said an elimination of block grant money would be a devastating blow for residents in his city "who need a hand up to live the American dream."

Ginny Stroud, community development administrator for the city of Greenville, also is concerned about Trump's proposed elimination of funding for block grants.

Stroud said her division manages to attract $4 in state grants and contributions from non-profits and charitable groups for every $1 that it receives in federal block grants. As a result, she said, the city has been able to rehabilitate 105 homes, build 61 houses and demolish 93 unsafe structures in the past five years.

Losing federal block grant money would hurt the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority's ability to improve curbs, gutters, sidewalks and streets in neighborhoods such as the Brutontown community, said Stan Wilson, the authority's executive director. He said his agency also uses block grant money to fund Meals on Wheels.

Roberts said local government officials in the Upstate and across the country are waging a "full-court press" to persuade Congress to continue funding community development block grants.

A coalition of 41 Democratic senators called last month for setting aside $3.3 billion in next year's budget for block grants. They said the program has invested more than $149 billion nationwide and provided assistance to over 133 million people during the past 40 years.

During an appearance in Greenville this week, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Trump's plan to eliminate funding for block grants is a "huge mistake."

Graham, a Republican from Seneca, said the grants "have been a good investment for the American taxpayer."

Greenville News reporter Nathaniel Cary contributed to this report.

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