Columnist Oscar B. Goodman: Las Vegas will feel pain of HUD budget cuts

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 1999 | 9:16 a.m.

Oscar B. Goodman is mayor of Las Vegas.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." So goes the beginning of Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities." The same may be said for the United States today. This is a time of unprecedented national prosperity. Now is the best opportunity to give our less fortunate neighbors a helping hand. The stock market is hitting record highs and unemployment is near an all-time low, and still Congress passes a federal budget cut in which the Department of Housing and Urban Development programs face massive cuts under the discretionary spending caps implemented as part of the 1997 budget deal.

The HUD budget cuts will destroy the city's ability to address the needs of our low- and moderate-income families, as they will other communities throughout the United States. The nation's economic well-being has not benefited everyone. Although Las Vegas is in the midst of a building boom that has generated more than 30,000 new jobs, a large number of residents are still underserved. This includes individuals living on fixed incomes, senior citizens, homeless persons, persons affected by HIV/AIDS and working families who pay more than 50 percent of their income on housing.

The city of Las Vegas has successfully implemented HUD's economic development programs. Cutting them now would cripple the programs, if not destroy them. While our economy is strong, we must devote our resources to help our city's less fortunate residents. One HUD program that addresses such issues is the Community Development Block Grant, which is administered through the city of Las Vegas by the Neighborhood Services Department. CDBG is a flexible funding source used by local officials to create jobs, construct or rehabilitate shelters for homeless persons and battered spouses, make buildings accessible to the elderly and handicapped, and fund a number of other essential community development programs. If these extreme budget cuts are passed, we can no longer build parks, senior facilities, community health centers, and day-care centers in our neighborho ods. Where will our children play? Where will our seniors convene? Where will we take our sick families for medical care?

History teaches us that a society survives and thrives when it helps those who are unable to help themselves. A society that fails to do this is destined to fail. If we cannot learn the lessons of history, we may be forced to repeat them. While our nation is in "the best of times," the proposed federal budget cuts will prove that Dickens' assessment of human affairs is timeless, and applies today.

As mayor of the great city of Las Vegas, I made a commitment to serve our residents and our neighborhoods. If our HUD budget is slashed, most of the vital projects and programs outlined in the city's Community Action Plan will be cut or eliminated, making it virtually impossible to give our residents a hand up toward self-sufficiency.