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Advocates for Montana’s most vulnerable residents are pushing back on a budget plan passed by the U.S. House, saying it would have disastrous consequences for people already faced with trying to find affordable housing in the state, as Mark Moran reports.
Lawmakers in Washington call it the Limit, Save, and Grow Act.
It raises the federal debt limit and reduces spending, but also cuts rental voucher funding for people struggling to find affordable housing, once known as Section 8.
Amy Hall, an attorney with Helena-based Montana Legal Services Association, says the bill would cut funding for 350,000 American families, including in Montana.
“About 1,500 families in Montana would lose access to rental assistance that is provided currently. Those would include older adults, persons with disabilities, families with children, and folks who without rental assistance would be at risk of being unhoused.”
Hall says Montana’s Indigenous tribes would also lose funding.
According to a White House fact sheet, 710 fewer miles of railroad track would go uninspected next year in Montana alone, and three air traffic control towers would be shuttered if the budget bill becomes law.
The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary said proposed cuts would cause “mass evictions”.
Up to one million households currently being served by HUD’s rental assistance programs could lose it and as many as 120,000 homeless Americans would lose their help, including, Hall says, people in Montana.
“All of us in Montana have seen the number of folks who are unhoused rise in all of our communities since COVID hit, and that would only get worse if these funding cuts go into effect. And there would also be cuts to tribal housing programs and HUD programs that combat discrimination.”
The bill is not likely to pass in its current form, but critics worry it would give leverage to partisan budget measures in the future and have a dramatic impact on livable wages for Montanans already struggling financially.
Diné College in Tsaile, AZ
A tribal college in Arizona has gotten some national attention this spring for “community college excellence”, in this case, on the Navajo Nation.
Alex Gonzalez has more.
Diné College in Tsaile, AZ is mentioned in an Aspen Institute report for the work it’s doing to boost the local economy in an area without many industry partners or employment opportunities for graduates.
Shazia Tabassum Hakim is a microbiology professor at the college, and says it’s been able to use grant opportunities to invest in economic development and sustainable business practices.
Since 2020, Hakim has led a 10-week program to train students to become water scientists in their community.
“We should be able to train the local workforce, because it not only helps the communities to get more out of what they have learned – but also, it is needed to continue the chain, because they are going to be the examples.”
Hakim says Diné’s water testing program is one example of an initiative that meets Navajo needs, but also helps deliver students to potential jobs.
She adds the response from students and the community has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Hakim says her program has led to greater awareness of safe water needs for people living on the reservation. And while the USDA grant that has made the program possible will end this year, she says the college will find a way to continue the work.
Given the tribe’s history with uranium mining, which led in the past to contaminated water sources and other health-related issues, Hakim says it is paramount that people know how to properly identify water contamination.
“It is not something that we are trying to stop at any point. For now, our students – we have trained them in a way just like ‘master trainers’ – so they are good enough in all these basic testing and other techniques. ”
The Aspen Institute report says the college has also decided to start its own businesses, one of which is to produce wool, since sheep ranching has been a cultural and economic staple for those in the area.
The school’s efforts have led to improved economic outcomes for tribal workers.
This story is supported by the Lumina Foundation.
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