Five Ways Trump’s Proposed Budget Hurts the Working Class
The budget would also eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency, which has helped working-class Americans of color start or expand their businesses and helped diversify some fields, like bringing more women into construction trades. These populations were targeted for this special program because they’re disproportionately likely to struggle to get loans elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration claims that that mission is itself divisive and discriminatory. Together, these programs allow working-class Americans to build and create businesses in communities often overlooked by traditional financing. Without government investment, they could disappear.
Low-income housing programs
A number of programs that aim to expand homeownership, both to people and communities, are on the chopping block. The budget would eliminate Community Development Financial Institutions, which bring financial institutions to communities that traditional banks ignore. They provide a range of financial services, including mortgages to low-income families buying their first homes. The Trump budget would also cut a program that has helped build more than 1.3 million affordable homes since 1992. And it would continue calling for a new Department of Housing and Urban Development policy to stop issuing rental assistance vouchers to new families.