Economy

Trump Admin To Provide Nearly $3 Billion To Support Homeless Americans

Published

3 years ago

June 9, 2020

The Trump administration is giving $2.96 billion of CARES Act funding to support homeless Americans and those at risk of becoming homeless as a result of the economic shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced in a Tuesday press release.

“Homelessness was a major issue in some cities across our Nation long before this pandemic occurred, and unfortunately the dire living conditions of our most vulnerable Americans left many without a home to isolate in or proper medical and healthcare resources to defend themselves against this invisible enemy,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a statement.

“As we continued to monitor the effects of COVID-19 in at risk communities, the Department and our partners worked quickly to respond to outbreaks and minimize the spread from hotspots to other locations,” Carson added. “This increased funding to help provide for our homeless will make a difference now as we combat the coronavirus and inform long-term, innovative solutions for addressing homelessness in the future.”

Today, @HUDgov is awarding ~$3 billion in relief funds to help homeless populations hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. These funds will help build and operate emergency shelters, provide hotel vouchers for the homeless, and provide essential services. https://t.co/95sTIZMJEE

— Archive: Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) June 9, 2020

Our most vulnerable need help and need protection, especially due to the impact of Coronavirus, and @HUDgov is committed to providing them with the shelter and resources they need to prevent homelessness and rapidly rehouse homeless individuals. https://t.co/95sTIZMJEE

— Archive: Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) June 9, 2020

President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “We are taking care of our Nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Thanks @SecretaryCarson.”

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270411233733287936

According to HUD, the budget allocates money for the following programs:

Make more emergency shelters available for homeless individuals and families.
Operate emergency shelters by providing food, rent, security, maintenance, repair, fuel, equipment, insurance, utilities, furnishings, and supplies necessary for their operation.
Provide Hotel/Motel Vouchers for homeless families and individuals.
Provide essential services to people experiencing homelessness including childcare, education services, employment assistance, outpatient health services, legal services, mental health services, substance abuse treatment services, and transportation.
Prevent individuals from becoming homeless and rapidly rehouse homeless individuals.

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Economy

San Francisco gas-furnace ban will gouge residents and strain vulnerable electric grid

Published

6 days ago

March 22, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

Progressive California is digging itself deeper and deeper into a literal energy crisis. Last week, twenty members of the Air Quality Management District “approved the plan to phase out and ban gas-powered systems that emit nitrogen oxide, or NOx, and that contribute to air pollution. Three board members were absent, and one member abstained” writes National Review.

The ban will phase out the sale of new gas furnaces and water heaters in Northern California. As a result, it will “be costly for residents, will further burden an already stretched electric grid, and will have minimal environmental impact” energy experts and economists told National Review.

“The move is emblematic of California’s approach to energy, which involves ramping up the demand for electricity while gutting the state’s ability to meet its electricity needs,” they said.

Specifically, it is “a regressive policy that’s going to increase costs in a state that is already unaffordable, it’s going to do minimal in terms of reducing [greenhouse-gas] emissions, and it’s going to stress a problem that we already have no plan of addressing, which is [that] our grid is going to be unable to provide reliable electricity,” said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at the California-based Pacific Research Institute who is studying the state’s electricity shortfall.

Winegarden said California already has a major housing-affordability problem. “And now we’re going to make it even less affordable,” he said. While there are state and federal incentives and subsidies for people to purchase and install electric heating systems, Winegarden, an economist, called it a “shell game.”

“Subsidies don’t get rid of the costs,” he said. “They just redistribute the costs.”

The board’s vote did not address natural-gas stoves because it doesn’t regulate indoor air pollution, notes National Review. However, earlier this year, the Biden administration’s Consumer Product Safety Commission was considering restrictions, and possibly a ban, on natural-gas stoves.