“Housing Cuts Kill!” This was the message more than two dozen People’s Action and People’s Action Institute members – from Washington State, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, Texas and Maryland – shared with their Members of Congress over three days of action on Capitol Hill.
As the House Appropriations Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Subcommittee gathered on Capitol Hill on July 14 to start to implement some of the $16.8 billion in cuts to housing support mandated by President Trump as part of his budget proposal, our members took to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers.
As the THUD Subcommittee met to debate and vote on the proposed budget cuts, which include eliminating housing assistance for over 415,000 individuals, denying funding to the Emergency Voucher program and allowing Public Housing Authorities to increase rents, ten members of the People’s Action Institute delegation were allowed to enter the room.
After scathing testimony from the Democratic members of this committee, including from Illinois Congressman Mike Quigley, who read the testimony of ONE Northside member Tamara Clark – one of constituents and part of our delegation – into the record, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut thanked our delegation for its presence, the People’s Action Institute delegation stood up, turned our backs on the committee and exposed brightly colored letters on our T-Shirts “HOUSING CUTS KILL”.
The next morning, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal joined us outside the headquarters of HUD for a press conference denouncing the cuts.
These horrible, cruel Republican budget cuts that are proposed to housing are proof that these housing cuts kill,” said Jayapal. “Nearly half a million people could be evicted. Housing protections would be stripped from veterans, from seniors with folks with disabilities. Plain and simple, there will be more people living in the streets.”