Students from Parkside Community Academy march against violence in South Shore in June 2016. Trump's proposed budget cuts would target health and safety initiatives for low-income youth. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

In his proposed budget published last week, President Donald Trump called for the total elimination of the Community Development Block Grant program. Administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the program has since 1974 provided more than $150 billion in funding for social services. Meals on Wheels, a program that provides hot meal deliveries to homebound seniors, has emerged as a prominent casualty of the potential elimination of CDBG. But in Chicago it’s just one of a plethora of services now under threat.

Chicago receives some $70 million in CDBG funding every year. Below is a list of the sorts of services that are at risk for partial or total defunding if Trump’s proposed elimination of the grant is approved by Congress:

  • $686,000 in forgivable loans to 100 low-income home owners for emergency heating repairs
  • $2 million to more than 500 low- and moderate-income seniors for minor renovations to make their homes more accessible, such as grab bars and ramps
  • $900,000 to 600 households to make emergency heating repairs, thus preventing displacement and homelessness
  • $380,000 for dozens of workshops and presentations aimed at mediating hate crimes and bullying in low- and moderate-income communities
  • $3 million for building-code enforcement in more than 9,000 housing units to prevent neighborhood decline and protect affordable housing
  • $5.7 million for emergency overnight shelters and transitional housing programs serving more than 6,300 homeless people
  • $2.5 million for counseling, legal aid, and other services for some 10,000 children and families who are victims of domestic violence
  • $1.3 million in emergency food supplies to some 150,000 people
  • $355,000 for sex ed and STI screening for more than 16,500 adolescents
  • $6.4 million for mental health services for 2,300 low-income people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
  • $3.9 million to screen and treat some 2,000 children for lead poisoning
  • $737,000 to assist nearly 30,000 low- and moderate-income people with disabilities to learn independent living skills and access services

A full list of CDBG-funded activities in Chicago can be found in the city’s 2017 “Draft Action Plan.”