To: Secretary Shaun Donovan, Department of HUD Secretary, President Donald Trump, The Florida State House, The Florida State Senate, Governor Ron DeSantis, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
STOP THE CLOSING OF WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA'S HUD OFFICE
Save the Tampa HUD office, which serves 8 million Florida residents in the Central Florida region, one of the state's areas hit hardest by foreclosures.
Why is this important?
For more than 8 million Floridians, the harsh reality of sequestration is about to hit home. As a direct result of sequester cuts — the across-the-board federal budget cuts that Congress enacted in March — the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is being forced to close offices throughout the country, and they have zeroed in on Tampa and Orlando.
This state has the number one foreclosure rate in the nation, with the Tampa Bay area consistently ranking in the top 10 for the highest rates of foreclosures in the country. As Florida has barely begun to recover from the housing crisis, it’s astonishing that the Tampa field office would be put on the chopping block. Not only does it serve the second-largest number of people out of all four of Florida’s offices, but it also serves one of the largest populations in comparison to HUD field offices across the country.
A report released last year by the Continuum of Care, led by the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, indicted that Tampa has one of the nation’s highest populations of homeless families with children. HUD brought together eight committees made up of stakeholders, community leaders, and government officials to help address this problem.
This is an office that services approximately one-third of Florida’s population. But closing this office will leave Central and Central West Florida citizens, as well as agencies that depend on the local HUD field office and its most valuable assistance and resources, in the dark.
We may be able to save the Tampa office, but quick fixes will only work for so long and for some programs. It’s time for our lawmakers on Capitol Hill to act responsibly and pass a fair and responsible long-term budget plan so that communities such as Tampa are able to keep these much-needed resources. HUD should unquestionably remove the Tampa field office from its closure plan or risk seriously jeopardizing the health and welfare of citizens in this region.
Help us save the Central West Florida HUD office by signing this petition and asking at least 10 others to join in this campaign for fairness to the citizens of our state.