(The Center Square) – Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown sent an urgent letter to Washington, D.C., on Thursday, urging Congress to save millions of dollars in grants that serve low-income residents.
The message was one of many that the U.S. Conference of Mayors sent Monday, with Brown’s hitting the inbox of U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash. Representing Spokane and much of eastern Washington, the new congressman is known to align with President Donald Trump.
Republicans on Capitol Hill turned their attention to appropriations bills this week after approving Trump’s agenda last Thursday. While his “big beautiful bill” focused on tax and spending policies for years to come, the dozen under review will authorize expenses through the 2026 fiscal year.
The Trump administration released a proposal in May that would eliminate the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program. Referred to as CDBG grants, the program provided Spokane with nearly $3 million in funding last year.
“CDBG is not about bureaucracy or abstract budgets. It is an investment in the people of Spokane – your constituents – who rely on this funding,” Brown wrote to Baumgartner. “This is not just another federal program. It is a lifeline to underserved neighborhoods and is essential for local, neighborhood infrastructure and housing development in Spokane.”
The mayor says cutting the grant program would have “devastating consequences” for her city.
The Spokane City Council approved recommendations last month for spending $3 million worth of CDBG grants this year. Most of that will help expand affordable housing and access to child care, provide job training and mental health services, and fund several neighborhood capital projects.
“CDBG funding has been essential to the success of some of Northeast Spokane’s key social infrastructure,” Luke Tolley, interim chair of the Bemiss Neighborhood Council, wrote in a news release. “The Northeast Community Center, the Northeast Youth Center and the Hillyard Senior Center all have only been able to continue their operations due to … CDBG funding.”
Trump’s proposal would cut the CDBG grants by $3.3 billion nationwide in 2026, alongside other HUD programs that provide millions in funding for Spokane. If approved, it would upend a pool of relief that low- to moderate-income individuals and families have relied on since 1974.
Ben Stuckart, executive director of the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium and former council president, warned in May that the cuts may push the housing crisis past a tipping point.
The housing consortium issued a press release that places the average waitlist for low-income housing in Spokane County at three years. He said there are more people on the waitlists than in the entire system, as regional data shows Spokane must build over 22,000 units by 2026.
“Spokane has been having a conversation around homelessness in our community for the last 10 years. We have seen numbers increase. We have seen many different ideas floated and new models implemented,” according to the release. “None of this will matter if these cuts happen. We will only see more people on our streets, and our most vulnerable will suffer.”
