Rep. Judy Chu Hits Proposed Community Development Budget Cut

Pasadena Rep. Judy Chu opposed Tuesday a proposed law in the House of Representatives that would cut her district’s Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) in half, citing its possible “catastrophic” effect on the community.

“My district stands to lose almost $2.2 million next year if these cuts go into effect,” Chu said in a speech at the House, the Pasadena Star-News reported. “The cuts are more than lines on a piece of paper — they will have real impacts on my neighbors and my community.”

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill could cut the CDBG fund of Southland cities nearly in half if the bill passes Congress.

Pasadena’s share would be reduced from $1.7 million to less than $1 million. Pasadena’s CDBG fund in 2012 was allocated to local nonprofits including Union Station Hmeless Services, Pasadena Unified School District and El Centro De Accion Social.

Fund cuts for CDBG and for other social programs has been a trend for the past few years, Pasadena Department of Housing Bill Huang told the Star-News. However, Huang said the final version of the bill may not have as much cut as that in the original proposal.

“What we are pretty sure is going to happen this year is we will suffer another round of sequestration cuts so another 5 percent generally across the board for our federally funded programs,” Huang told the newspaper. “We really are still in this kind of perfect storm where the demand is very high and increasing in many cases and yet the resources are diminishing.”

“It certainly shows sentiment within the House to cut these programs and cut them dramatically,” Huang added.

El Centro De Accion Social former Director Randy Ertll shared the same sentiment.

“But I think there will be tremendous backlash if they cut it. … If you cut that, it’s like cutting the oxygen from people that need that kind of help,” Ertll told the newspaper.

In the Senate, there were proposals for a separate version of the bill that would maintain the amount of fund, or lessen the House’s cut proposal for several cities.