Not in Trump's USA.
SouthPaw @ nycsouthpaw
This also needs context. More people are harmed by a federal government shutdown than federal employees. Native American communities, in particular, are immediately adversely affected. As the shutdown continues, the harms expand and multiply throughout the country’s population.
There are businesses that rely on the federal government as a customer—contractors of all sorts and sizes—and as a landlord—e.g. vendors at national parks. People who own and work for those businesses are harmed by the interruption of their income.
Scientists missing their grant funds, journalists who can’t access public records, inventors who can’t get their patents, entrepreneurs who can’t get business licenses ... This bit of context is, in all likelihood, barely scratching the surface of harms flowing from the shutdown.
Diane Yentel @ dianeyentel
The longer #shutdown2018 goes on, the more low income seniors, people with disabilities, families and others will be hard hit, & the more the housing crisis will be exacerbated. Here's what we know about impacts on tenants in subsidized housing. 1/
~1,150 contracts for existing affordable housing are under suspension - HUD doesn’t have $ to renew. This puts about 80,000 low income people - mostly seniors or people w/disabilities w/ income less than $13,000 per year, at risk of losing their homes. 2/
Another 500 contracts (w/ another 30,000-40,000 households) will expire later in January & another 550 in Feb. Without additional funding, HUD cannot renew these contracts, putting tenants at risk of losing their homes. 3/
Nearly 10,000 of the total 17,723 PBRA properties are FHA insured. This represents an estimated $13.5 billion in unpaid balance of FHA insured debt. 4/
Public housing agencies don’t have access to much needed capital repair $, leaving them without money to make critical public housing repairs or upgrades, putting public housing residents at risk. 5/
Even if PHAs have prior-year capital funds available or have sufficient operating reserves, HUD can’t provide the manual approval needed for some public housing repairs to move forward when the government is shut down. 6/
PHAs have $ for Jan & Feb payments for S8 vouchers. If shutdown continues beyond then, PHAs won’t make timely payments to landlords. At that point either landlords will have to absorb losses, or tenants will have to try to pay the rent hike or be evicted. 7/
In the meantime, given shutdown uncertainty, PHAs are less able to approve families on voucher waiting lists. Instead, PHAs will hold any available vouchers until Congress reaches a final spending agreement and they can be sure they can honor payments. 8/
In rural America, the USDA direct loan programs will not issue any additional funds. Banks are unlikely to close on loans until the government shutdown ends, delaying homeownership at best and possibly forcing sellers to look elsewhere. 9/
The shutdown can also cause construction delays and increase fees/interest paid for developers participating in USDA programs due to lack of inspectors and mortgage funds, further delaying or disincenting much needed affordable homes. 10/
It is not yet clear whether USDA can continue paying rental assistance or vouchers for low- and very low-income tenants. 11/
Bottom line: HUD and USDA programs house some of our country’s poorest & most vulnerable seniors, people with disabilities and families with children. It’s incredibly reckless to risk their homes as perceived leverage for a border wall. 12/12
This is No Deal US style. Coming soon to a place near you too.