By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
As discussions are underway in the U.S. Senate pertaining to the 47th president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” community leaders and advocates are sounding the alarm about what it could do to thousands of families that currently rely on housing vouchers and other resources aimed at homelessness.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is the president’s proposed budget plan for fiscal year 2026, in which it extends 2017 tax cuts and makes other major reductions. Republican legislators are aiming to have the bill finalized by July 4 or sooner, before their August recess.
“This is going to disrupt and devastate communities that have historically depended upon housing and have depended upon the city, state, and federal side to provide assistance,” said Jamal Turner, vice chair of the Baltimore City Continuum of Care (CoC) and chair of the Police Accountability Board for Baltimore City. “If we take into account the rising cost of housing, utilities, goods and services based on tariffs, this administration is demonstrating a lack of compassion for those that are in less fortunate positions.”
The CoC, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative, consists of several organizations that work to house persons experiencing homelessness. The CoC is calling on Congress to reject the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and restore and secure full funding for HUD initiatives.
CoC Chair Nico Sanders, president and CEO of Community Housing Associates, said he believes this bill does not provide any hope for Marylanders and specifically Baltimoreans.
According to Sanders and Turner, 6,232 Baltimore households, the majority of whom are African-American, could lose their housing vouchers as a result of this budget, putting them at immediate risk of displacement. The city is also projected to lose more than $165 million in federal housing dollars, a 43 percent reduction.
According to Sanders, the CoC pays property owners to house individuals.
“You come through an access point, and you’re housed,” said Sanders. “An organization like mine—Community Housing Associates—shows you the unit. You move in, and Community Housing Associates pay the rent. You contribute up to 30 percent of your Area Median Income (AMI). That could be anywhere from zero rent to $600 or $800.”
Sanders said the average person in CoC housing is paying around $100 or less.
House Republicans passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on May 22. Senate Republicans decided to release a portion of their own version of the bill on June 16 via the Senate Finance Committee (SFC) It laid out the tax provisions of the bill.
“Our bill will extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts lowering tax rates, it will extend the doubled child tax credit, it will extend the nearly doubled standard deduction, but not just extend them…make them permanent,” said U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). “We’re actually going even further by increasing the child tax credit by another $200 again on a permanent basis.”
The Senate version also extends some tax cuts for business, creates a slower phase out of tax credits for solar and wind energy, pushes back cuts for nuclear, geothermal and hydropower and cuts Medicaid even more than the House version.
At Senate Republicans’ June 17 live-streamed press conference Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the bill would limit the growth of Medicaid spending. It would do this by reducing “fraud, waste and abuse,” and include a work requirement to be eligible for Medicaid.
“You should be trying to work or volunteer or participate in your community in some way and by doing that demonstrate that you are trying your hardest to help this country be greater,” said Oz. “By doing that you earn the right to be on Medicaid.”
Sanders pointed out that everyone needs help at some point in their lives.
“It is easy to point a finger at someone, to look down upon them, to say that ‘you should be doing this’ or ‘this is what should be happening,’” said Turner. “It is easy to ignore the fact that what affects the part eventually affects the whole.”
Turner emphasized that when individual suffering goes ignored and grows from a few to many, the asking will stop and the taking will begin.