Reportedly, former HUD Secretary under Trump, Ben Carson, may be next HUD Secretary

Reportedly, former HUD Secretary under Trump, Ben Carson, may be next HUD Secretary

By Lynda Carson — November 23, 2024

Yesterday, it was around 61 years ago that former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and for those of you who forgot, it was the convicted felon Donald J. Trump’s former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, who claimed that poverty was a state of mind.

Reportedly, earlier today in the website of Housing Wire, it was reported that Ben Carson, former controversial HUD Secretary for the last Trump administration, is the front runner for the next Hud Secretary (Department of Housing and Urban Development - HUD), for the Trump administration.

In part the Housing Wire report states, “Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon-turned-politician who ran for president in 2016 before becoming President Donald Trump’s U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, is the frontrunner to lead the agency once again, according to a report published by Politico.

Citing sources familiar with the transition, the outlet reported on Friday that Carson “is a favorite to return to the role if he wants it.” Carson was one of the few cabinet-level appointees in the first Trump administration who remained in his role for the entirety of the term, and served as one of the president-elect’s most loyal campaign surrogates in both the 2020 and 2024 cycles.”

Additionally, according to Housing Wire, “During his time as HUD secretary, Carson oversaw the rollback of the Barack Obama-era affirmatively furthering fair housing rule that was later re-implemented by the Biden administration, initially advocated for changes to local zoning regulations to permit more construction before changing course alongside the president, expressed alignment with the president on removing the government-sponsored enterprises from conservatorship, and repeatedly sought to reduce the budget of the agency.”

National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT):

Former local Berkeley tenant activist Eleanor Walden, who passed away in April 2023, was a long time folk singer, tenant activist, civil rights and social justice activist, former Board Member of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, member of the East Bay Gray Panthers, member of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), member of the Save Section 8 Tenants Group in Berkeley, a member of the Resident’s Council at Redwood Gardens in Berkeley, and other groups.

In an email report from Eleanor Walden sent out widely to myself and others in 2023 before she passed away, in part it stated, “AVRAM AND ELEANOR GO TO WASHINGTON - Redwood Garden residents voted unanimously to send two delegates to the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, NAHT, in Washington D.C. June 20-23. Eleanor Walden and Avram Gur-Arye volunteered for the positions as delegates, Avram was given $225 for the registration fee from the Residents' Council treasury. Otherwise each agreed to raise money on their own and pay their own expenses. Only one delegate has the right to vote at the conference, while Avram was chosen by the Council, he was not able to attend the Board Election and Eleanor was, by default, the member who voted for Charlotte Rodrigues, from Sacramento, as the CA representative to the Board of Directors of NAHT.”

National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT) Denounced HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s Housing Bill:

During April 26 of 2018, reportedly, the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), and tenant leaders denounced HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s housing bill, and demanded that former president Trump (now president elect convicted felon Donald J. Trump), must “cease and desist” his war against poor.

In part the NAHT release stated, “Elected leaders of the national US tenants union today denounced the housing bill proposed April 25 by HUD Secretary Ben Carson as a “vicious and cruel” assault on the poorest of the poor. 
  
“Carson’s proposals will push millions of people from their homes.  Carson’s plan is not about moving people to work--its about needlessly cutting people from programs that enable them to find work,” says Ed Lucas, 59, President of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants (NAHT), Marine Corp vet and director of a neighborhood jobs center, who lives in a resident-owned, HUD-assisted building in Chicago.   “Millions will be displaced if these deeply cruel proposals see the light of day.  Congress should reject them out of hand.”

NAHT affiliates in Boston, Atlanta, Spokane and other cities have held or are planning local actions to protest the Carson-Trump rent increase and bogus “work” requirements.   Tenants, joined by the HUD employees union, delivered a giant “Cease and Desist” order to the Boston HUD office in March.   A similar action is planned in Atlanta on May 1.
 
In line with Trump’s 2019 budget proposals, Carson’s bill proposes draconian rent increases for the 4.6 million American households who receive HUD rental assistance.  The bill would raise rents for tenants below the age of 65 from 30 to 35% percent of gross income; at least triple “minimum rents” paid by the most destitute; and eliminate deductions that keep rents affordable for seniors and disabled people. Overall, rents would jump overnight an average of 32% for 4.6 million households--and an incredible 111% for HUD tenants in Puerto Rico!   Close to a million low income children of the most destitute households would face homelessness, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“Trump wants to raise rents on the poorest of the poor, in order to cut taxes for the richest of the rich,” comments Deborah Arnold, 54, a minister and community activist and NAHT Vice President from Atlanta, Georgia.  “80% of HUD tenant households are led by women.  We, too, demand that Congress reject Trump’s vicious assault on the women, children, elderly and disabled people who live in HUD housing.”

“Trump lives in Public Housing--the White House. Will a work requirement be imposed on him?,” asked Geraldine Collins, 63, a disabled, retired medical administrator and NAHT VP/East who lives in senior housing on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “Congress should make Trump do something useful, rather than tweeting, playing golf, watching cable TV, and destroying the nation’s social safety net.”

June 2018 report, VICIOUS AND CRUEL ASSAULT ON THE POOREST OF THE POOR, Click here, https://thestreetspirit.org/2018/06/18/vicious-and-cruel-assault-on-the-poorest-of-the-poor/ .

Reportedly, there’s much more about Ben Carson’s War On Hud:

In a 2020 National Low-Income Housing report (NLIHC), in part it states, “President Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget request – released on February 10 – proposes to slash funding for HUD by an astounding $8.6 billion or 15% below 2020 enacted levels, not including those cuts offset by increased FHA receipts.” Click here, https://nlihc.org/resource/take-action-oppose-deep-cuts-affordable-housing-proposed-administration .

Reportedly, “Advocacy and Civil Rights Groups Condemn Carson Proposal to Allow Discrimination Against LGBTQ People Experiencing Homelessness.”

In an additional NLIHC report in 2019, in part it says, “Washington, D.C. — In his testimony to the House Committee on Financial Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson was asked about the agency’s implementation and enforcement of the Equal Access Rule, which provides sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination protections in housing and shelter services. One day after Secretary Carson told the committee that he wasn’t anticipating any changes to this rule, HUD announced a proposal to gut this very rule and remove any protections for the LGBTQ community in shelters. Click here, https://nlihc.org/news/advocacy-and-civil-rights-groups-condemn-carson-proposal-allow-discrimination-against-lgbtq .

HUD announced a forthcoming Proposed Rule that weakens its enforcement of the Equal Access Rule.

“This proposed rule provides that grant recipients, subrecipients, owners, operators, managers, and providers (Shelter Providers) under HUD programs which permit single-sex or sex-segregated facilities (such as bathrooms or temporary, emergency shelters and other buildings and facilities with physical limitations or configurations that require and are permitted to have shared sleeping quarters or bathing facilities) may establish a policy, consistent with state and local law, by which such Shelter Provider considers an individual’s sex for the purposes of determining accommodation within such shelters and for purposes of determining sex for admission to any facility or portion thereof. The proposed rule permits Shelter Providers to consider a range of factors in making such determinations, including privacy, safety, practical concerns, religious beliefs, any relevant considerations under civil rights and nondiscrimination authorities , the individual’s sex as reflected in official government documents, as well as the gender which a person identifies with. The proposed rule does not dictate a required basis for making determinations other than that they be consistent with an overall policy. The proposed rule continues HUD’s policy of ensuring that its programs are open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201904&RIN=2506-AC53

Additionally, reportedly in 2020, “NHLP and NLIHC Send Letter to HUD Secretary Carson Urging Tenant Protections.” Click here, https://nlihc.org/resource/nhlp-and-nlihc-send-letter-hud-secretary-carson-urging-tenant-protections .

Also, reportedly in 2020, “Congressional Leaders Send Letters to HUD Secretary Calling for Accelerated Distribution of CARES Act Funds.” Click here, https://nlihc.org/resource/congressional-leaders-send-letters-hud-secretary-calling-accelerated-distribution-cares

During 2018, Office of Inspector General and Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson:

“On February 2, 2018, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) opened an investigation in response to multiple complaints that HUD Secretary Benjamin Carson may have used his office for the personal benefit of his son, Benjamin Carson, Jr., by allowing him to participate in official Department matters, and particularly in a June 2017 HUD “listening tour” in Baltimore, Maryland. These complaints stemmed from media reporting at the time raising questions regarding whether Secretary Carson may have misused his position by allowing Carson Jr. to invite certain companies or individuals to participate in the Baltimore listening tour for the purpose of advancing his own financial interests. The OIG opened this investigation to determine whether Secretary Carson took official action to personally benefit his son in contravention of federal ethics regulations, and to assess Carson Jr.’s interactions with the Department.”

https://www.hudoig.gov/reports-publications/report/investigation-alleged-misuse-office-secretary-private-gain-relative

In February 2018, according to a CNN report, in part the report stated, “The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general is looking into the role HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s family has played at the agency, a spokesman told CNN.

Carson called earlier this month for the inspector general to “review” the role his family has played at the department after The Washington Post reported that HUD officials expressed ethics concerns about their role. Carson’s son and daughter-in-law helped organize a listening tour for the agency in Baltimore last summer.” Click here, https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/20/politics/ben-carson-family-hud-investigation/index.html .

HUD Secretary Ben Carson was also criticized for a furnishing scandal; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carson_office_furnishing_scandal .

CREW requests HUD investigate Ban Carson family influence; https://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-action/letters/hud-ben-carson-family/ .

Reportedly, “IG Says HUD's Furniture Order Violated Law, But Clears Carson of Wrongdoing.”

HUD Secretary Ben Carson Suggested That Slaves Were Immigrants Who Imagined The U.S. As Land Of Dreams & Opportunity:

Reportedly, in 2017, while serving under Trump, HUD Secretary Ben Carson was criticized for suggesting that slaves were immigrants who came to the U.S. who imagined that the U.S. as a land of dreams and opportunity, and has repeatedly done so according to reports. Here, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/samuel-l-jackson-naacp-criticize-ben-carson-deeming-slaves-as-immigrants-983675/ , and here, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ben-carson-refers-slaves-immigrants-first-speech-hud .

Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson was also criticized for other controversial statements that he has made.

Additionally, reportedly Ben Carson botched military eligibility statistic; https://www.factcheck.org/2016/02/carson-botches-military-eligibility-statistic/ .


Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson Contribution To Project 2025:


Apparently, Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson Wants HUD To Push or Rush Subsidized Housing Tenants Into Marriage.

The extreme right-wing fascist Republicans will control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives next year in 2025.

And the fascists will control the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

It has become apparent that despite the fact that fascist convicted felon Donald J. Trump has denied any connection with Project 2025, Trump's former HUD Secretary Ben Carson has contributed his schemes or plans in Project 2025, in an effort to drastically change or destroy HUD.

See a little information below…

A) In Project 2025, right-wing extremist Ben Carson has implied that he wants HUD to push or rush people in HUD assisted housing programs or project, into getting married.

In part, Ben Carson’s Project 2025 contribution says; { Where admissible in regulatory action, HUD should implement reforms reducing the implicit anti-marriage bias in housing assistance programs, strengthen work and work-readiness requirements, implement maximum term limits for residents in PBRA and TBRA programs, and end Housing First policies so that the department prioritizes mental health and substance abuse issues before jumping to permanent interventions in homelessness. }

{ Not withstanding administrative reforms, Congress should enact legislation that protects life and eliminates provisions in federal housing and welfare benefits policies that discourage work, marriage, and meaningful paths to upward economic mobility.” }

B) He also wants HUD to maximize term limits for people in Project Based Rental Assistance housing and tenant based housing (Housing Choice Voucher tenants or tenants using subsidized housing vouchers). This includes families, seniors, the chronically ill, and those with disabilities. See page 509 at bottom of page, or page 7 near top of of page.

C) To eliminate the new Housing Supply Fund.

D) To prohibit noncitizens and all mixed-status families from living in federally assisted housing.

Click below for Ben Carson’s contribution to Project 2025:

https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-15.pdf

10 Reasons We're Ready to Say Goodbye to Ben Carson

Reportedly, back in 2020, the Alliance For Housing Justice, had 10 reasons to say goodbye to former HUD Secretary Ben Johnson; Click here, https://www.allianceforhousingjustice.org/post/10-reasons-to-say-goodbye-to-ben-carson .

We’re ready to say goodbye to Ben Carson and his disastrous leadership at HUD. In December of 2016, Dr. Ben Carson — neurosurgeon, failed presidential candidate, and amateur Egyptologist — was nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Despite clearly, and accurately, saying he was not qualified to run a federal agency, Dr. Carson agreed to take the job and was confirmed in March of 2017.

The four years of Secretary Caron’s tenure have made it clear that he was right about at least one thing: he was not up to the challenge of running an agency tasked with providing a fundamental human right to the American people. He lacked the knowledge, the interest, and most basically, he lacked the moral ability to put the needs of tens of millions of Americans above his own or above the capricious ego of his boss. Here are the top 10 reasons we’re not sad to say goodbye.

1. Luxury for Me; Austerity for Thee: Table-Gate

Early in Secretary Carson’s tenure, he gave us a perfect example of Dr. Maya Angelou’s famous saying, “when people show you who they are; believe them.” On the heels of proposing and cheerleading for a federal budget proposal with massive budget cuts for public and subsidized housing, Carson got caught trying to spend $31,000 on a dining room set for his personal office. The resulting press shamed him into canceling the purchase, but not from continuing to try and slash and burn HUD’s budget.

2. Hollowing out the HUD Budget

Every single year of his tenure, Ben Carson helped develop and lobby for federal budget proposals that would, if enacted, lead to homelessness, illness, and death. While generations of disinvestment and neglect have left our precious public housing stock in need of over a trillion dollars in repairs, Ben Carson did not try to solve the problems, he tried to make them worse. His budgets proposed zeroing out public housing repair funds, eliminating Community Development Block Grants, HOME funds, and slashing budgets practically across the board during one of the worst housing crises this nation has ever seen.

3. Incapable or Unwilling to Learn the Job

We knew when he took the job that Dr. Carson was not qualified to run a federal agency — we knew because of his experience, and because Carson and his closest allies said so themselves. And while we knew that his knowledge of housing policy was pretty thin when he took the position, even the most cynical of us thought he would at least try to get up to speed. But, even with the bar planted very low, he failed to clear it.

In 2019, more than 2 years into his tenure at the helm of the Department, Secretary Carson showed the world he didn’t care enough about us to even learn the basics. During a Congressional oversight hearing, Rep. Katie Porter tried to ask Secretary Carson about HUD’s policy on the properties it owns, properties that once were people’s homes that had been foreclosed on. She asked him about it using the common acronym REO. Secretary Carson didn’t know what she was talking about, first thinking she meant cookies (“Oreos?”). But he didn’t just mishear her. When prompted with the first two words, he was still unable to come up with the term.

“Carson: Real estate …

Porter: What does the O stand for?

Carson: Organization?

Porter: Owned. Real estate owned.”

4. Kicking Us When We’re Down; Rent Hikes for the Lowest Income Residents

Less than one year after his party and Administration jammed through a $1.5 trillion dollar tax cut benefitting the 1%, Ben Carson decided to try and make up some of that cash on the backs of the very poorest people in the country. One of the most effective parts of our public and subsidized housing is that it is designed to be truly affordable — tenants pay a set percentage of their income on rent, and if they have no income, they pay a base rate. But that wasn’t good enough for Ben Carson who tried to raise base rents for the very poorest and implement harsh work requirements — despite overwhelming evidence that these policies do nothing to help people in poverty.

When Carson was confronted by public and subsidized housing tenants who asked him “where will we go?” if he made their housing unaffordable, Carson didn’t listen or try to understand the people he was sworn to serve. Instead, he insulted them, calling them “swamp creatures.” But tenants and manufactured homeowners, advocates, and organizers across the country fought back hard and Carson was forced to abandon his plan.

5. Anatomy of a Scam: Opportunity Zones

Anytime Carson or Trump are asked about their shameful record on economic and racial justice, you can be sure they will trot out their talking points on Opportunity Zones. They love to try and paint this massive developer and investor tax scam into some kind of boon for People of Color. Opportunity Zones have supercharged gentrification while stealing trillions of tax dollars and handing them to the mega-rich, including Trump’s own family.

This Administration has a well-earned reputation for gaslighting and doublespeak, but the Orwellian named Opportunity Zones have to make it toward the top levels of cynicism and exploitation.

6. Supercharging Discrimination, Part I: Kneecapping Disparate Impact

It took a little time for Secretary Carson to really catch his stride in trying to ram through destructive rules and policies, but once he did, he went after Fair Housing with a vengeance. One of his most destructive attempts was the rule making to virtually incapacitate the disparate impact standard of the Fair Housing Act.

If put into practice, the final rule on the disparate impact standard will make it nearly impossible to hold banks, landlords, and insurers accountable for actions that discriminate against and disproportionately harm People of Color, women, the differently-abled, families with children, and other marginalized communities. The Disparate Impact Standard has been one of the most effective tools for advocates, individuals, and communities to stop practices that may appear neutral on their face, but that inflicted outsized harm to people already struggling in our structurally unequal system.

7. Supercharging Discrimination Part II, Repealing Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing

One of the many lessons the renewed movement for Black lives taught much of white America this summer was this country’s long, violent history of systemic discrimination. Everything from persistent and huge racial wealth gaps to poorer health and educational outcomes to escalating police violence in gentrifying neighborhoods have their roots in discriminatory housing and land policy. The entire purpose of the rules on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) are to require cities, states, and counties to look at that history straight on and dismantle it. So of course, Ben Carson is trying to eliminate it.

Repealing AFFH was just the kind of divisive, racist move that makes the boss happy though, and Trump tried repeatedly to make it a centerpiece of his re-election strategy. Trump threw away the racist dog-whistle and picked up the racist megaphone to spew lies and stoke fear about AFFH to woo his warped version of “suburban housewives’ into voting for him. It didn’t work.

The repeal of AFFH is currently in place, but is under legal challenge and is at the top of fair housing, racial justice, and affordable housing advocates list for President-Elect Biden to immediately repeal.

8. Trying to Force 100,000 People into the Street with the Mixed-Status Rule

Secretary Carson didn’t want to get left behind in an Administration that has made cruelty, bigotry, xenophobia, and hatred a centerpiece. To keep up with the Millers, Carson released a proposed rule that would throw an estimated 55,000 children and their families out of their homes if anyone in their household is an immigrant without specific types of documentation. This breathtakingly vicious proposal would not only wreak havoc on thousands of lives, but it would also actually cost HUD more money than the current system, and would likely mean even fewer families would be able to access housing support.

9. Attacking the Most Vulnerable and Denying Equal Access

While attacking immigrants has been a favorite past-time of this Administration, attacking the LGBTQ+ community seems to be one of Ben Carson’s personal pet projects. After being caught referring to transgendered women as “big hairy men,” Carson didn’t apologize, he doubled down. With the release of the Equal Access proposed rule, he is attempting to bring the power of HUD and the federal government in to deny LGBTQ+ people access to shelter. The proposed rule would allow shelters receiving HUD dollars to deny life-saving shelter to people based on their gender expression.

A full 1-in-5 members of the transgender community will experience homelessness at some point in their lives: this is an emergency that requires HUD to open more access, not to shut people out.

10. Coronavirus Task Force

We thought when Dr. Carson was named to the Coronavirus Task Force that for once in this Administration he could do some good by bringing his medical experience and education to work for the American people. We were wrong. Instead of promoting science-backed solutions like universal mask-wearing, physical distancing, and advocating for financial support for people to stay home and stay safe, Ben Carson lied to the American people about the seriousness of the virus and pushed quack cures from his friends. But, like TableGate, what’s good for you isn’t enough for him. When his refusal to wear a mask and distance inevitably ended with him contracting COVID-19, he used his influence to get one of the very few available doses of the rare, life-saving antibody treatment that Trump also received. Over 3,000 people a day are dying from COVID-19, millions more have been sickened, and millions are suffering long-term effects. Secretary Carson could have helped prevent this, but he was only looking out for himself.

 It’s a depressing litany of capriciousness, cruelty, and incompetence; and, we are more than ready to turn the page. But while Ben Carson set the bar very low, our expectations for the new Administration are much higher. There is damage to be undone from the last 4 years and from the last 40 and 400. We cannot wait and we cannot allow the incoming Biden/Harris Administration and their HUD Secretary nominee Rep. Marcia Fudge to be timid in taking on the challenge. Our lives depend on it and we can help.

Presently, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area affordable housing projects and HUD assisted housing programs are at risk.

That’s right! Our country is in dire straits, now that the fascist convicted felon Donal J. Trump, and the fascist Republicans will control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives in 2025.

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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