Camden officials on Monday took Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) on a tour of the city's Whitman Park and Centerville neighborhoods where revitalization plans are finalists for $30 million in federal grants.
However, after the tour, Menendez warned during an afternoon news conference that proposed federal budget cuts could undermine the ability to infuse Camden with the needed resources for a comprehensive plan that would improve housing, schools, recreational fields, and employ more residents.
Republicans in the House and Senate, he said, support cuts that provide $20 million of the $250 million President Obama requested for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development neighborhood initiatives.
The senator said the cuts equal a "starvation diet for a program that needs 10 times that much to be effective," adding that he has seen how such initiatives benefit neighborhoods.
"Quite simply, these programs change lives," he said. "If we are going to truly transform our most distressed neighborhoods, we need a comprehensive approach that recognizes the need to connect affordable housing with good schools, good jobs, and good transportation."
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