In Trump budget, cuts for Petaluma programs

President Donald Trump’s recently released budget blueprint slashes funding sources for agencies serving some of Petaluma’s most vulnerable residents, sparking concern among local nonprofit leaders.

Homeless services, senior meal delivery, home repairs for low-income residents and public broadcasting are among the programs threatened by the spending plan released earlier this month. The proposal outlines $54 billion in cuts to various program budgets to redirect that same amount to military spending, fulfilling Trump’s campaign promises of eliminating entitlement programs in favor of national security.

The proposal cuts $6.2 billion in gross discretionary spending from Housing and Urban Development and abolishes the Community Development Block Grant Program, which funnels about $1.65 million a year to Sonoma County and more than $340,000 annually to the city of Petaluma.

Petaluma’s grant funds were last year allocated to Petaluma People Services Center’s Meals on Wheels program, PEP Housing, Rebuilding Together Petaluma, and covered administrative costs at the city. More than $160,000 of the county’s community development block grant funds were awarded to Petaluma agencies last year, with additional dollars alloted to ADA retrofits at Helen Putnam Regional Park in unincorporated Petaluma.

“When you lose a sum of money like this, it’s a question of where do you put scarce resources, which programs get funding and which don’t,” said John Haig, assistant executive director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, which administers block grants. “It’s a horrible situation.”

For Petaluma, already hard hit by the recession, losing the community development block grants would be “devastating,” Housing Coordinator Sue Castellucci said.

But, the proposal doesn’t trigger immediate cuts, and Castellucci and Haig say they’re anticipating getting roughly the same amount in block grant funding as last year for the upcoming fiscal year. Trump’s blueprint is largely viewed as a political statement and will be subject to Congressional approval.

For the agencies receiving the block grants from the county and city, the stakes are high.

Petaluma People Service Center receives about $129,000 of the $265,405 budget for its Meals on Wheels program from funding that’s in jeopardy, Executive Director Elece Hempel said. Also at risk are funds for employment and housing programs, though exact implications to the agency’s $2.4 million overall budget are unclear, she said.

Supported by volunteers who spend almost 18,000 hours delivering meals to about 250 Petaluma seniors annually, Hempel said the Meals on Wheels program is a vital part of the community.

“If there’s one thing I’m always looking for it’s the silver lining,” she said. “We will end up needing to rely on the community even more than we already rely on them.”

For the Committee on the Shelterless, which provides housing, food, education and work assistance, an estimated $150,000 in funding that benefits the agency is imperiled by the budget proposal, CEO Mike Johnson said.

“It could be just devastating for everyone in Sonoma County,” he said. “We’re just hoping that more rational minds prevail.”

COTS is already grappling with a change in a funding formula last year that resulted in a significant annual loss of federal funds, Johnson said. The agency last year was awarded a onetime boost from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and is working to secure innovative long-term funding sources, he said.

“We do have challenges and issues to overcome,” he said, adding that no cuts to programs have been made. “But COTS is very strong and it always has been very strong, I have no doubt we’re going to get through this.”

Johnson said COTS relies on Rebuilding Together Petaluma, a nonprofit that repairs and renovates homes for low-income residents and has long helped with fixes to COTS’ Mary Isaak Center. If the block grants were eliminated, about $230,000 - nearly 60 percent - of Rebuilding Together Petaluma’s budget would be knocked out, Executive Director Jane Hamilton said.

Rebuilding Together Petaluma repairs as many as 60 homes annually, with more than 600 active volunteers tackling projects ranging from roof repairs to replacing furnaces, Hamilton said. To avoid drastic cuts, she said the nonprofit would be forced to compete for grants from businesses and other private funding sources.

“I can’t imagine that the public will enjoy having a larger number of people who are in pain and need and out on the streets in their communities,” she said. “That’s not going to be good for anyone, and it impacts everyone.”

A bright spot in the otherwise dreary forecast is an increase in volunteerism at her agency, she said.

“Lots of people want to volunteer because of the new administration,” she said. “People’s response is that we’ve got to get out to help the world. It’s really great - we’ve gotten lots of calls from business and individuals who say they want to get involved … That’s a really important part of those social services.”

Among other cuts, Home Investment Partnership Programs, or HOME, funds used to support affordable housing are also on the chopping block, Haig said. The budget would also eliminate funding for about 20 small independent agencies, including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.