President Donald Trump’s proposed 2018 budget, despite increasing funding for federal lead removal programs, will do little to help Syracuse’s low-income families who have traditionally borne the brunt of the city’s lead poisoning problem, city officials and experts said.

Many of the same residents that struggle with lead poisoning in Syracuse also rely heavily on other programs Trump seeks to cut in 2018, officials said.

“It’s such a small incremental increase in comparison to the cuts,” said Katie Bronson, an outcome broker for Home HeadQuarters, referring to Trump’s proposed funding increase to lead programs and overall cuts to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. “It’s really hard to compare the two.”

Trump’s proposal increases the funds for HUD’s lead-based paint programs by $20 million, but guts the federal agency’s budget with a 13.2 percent decrease in overall funding to $40.7 billion in 2018. HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program and HOME Investment Partnerships Program are also both eliminated in the proposal. Syracuse has received millions of dollars in CDBG and HOME grants, which have been used to support a variety of different services and initiatives for low-income residents.

Minority communities in low-income areas of Syracuse disproportionately have had higher numbers of lead poisoning cases, said Sally Santangelo, the executive director of CNY Fair Housing, an advocacy group focused on eliminating housing discrimination.

“We need the increase in funding to address lead poisoning,” Santangelo said.

CDBG funds have been used by Syracuse to fulfill the required 25 percent local match for HUD lead-based paint grants, according to archived city council agendas. About 12 percent of Syracuse children less than six years old had high blood lead levels, according to data from Onondaga County’s Health Department, from 2009-15.

One report by Syracuse University students in the Maxwell Community Benchmarks Program — which was published last year — illustrates how interconnected cases of lead poisoning and poverty are in Syracuse.

The report found that census tracts with high numbers of lead poisoning violations and inspections had higher percentages of children age 5 and under living beneath the poverty line, for example. In addition, census tracts with high numbers of lead poisoning violations and inspections had higher percentages of children, 18-24, without high school diplomas.

Santangelo said that while the proposed elimination of programs like CDBG would negatively affect low-income families in the city, Congress will more than likely block the full extent of Trump’s proposed HUD cuts.

Santangelo also said people must keep Trump’s budget proposal in perspective.

“We’re certainly concerned about what the 2018 budget is and contains,” she said. “But, I’m optimistic that those cuts will be scaled back. Obviously the budget is a wish list and not legislation. And, so there’s a long way to go between what gets proposed and what gets enacted.”

Published on April 4, 2017 at 12:10 am

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek