HUD Secretary Carson Expects to Release Policy Agenda in Next Few Months

In a recent interview with The Associated Press, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said he expects to release a policy agenda within the next few months that delivers “bang for the buck,” partly by encouraging more private sector collaboration. He said he expects to advance public-private partnerships, extending low-income housing tax credits and providing more opportunities for public-housing residents to get jobs at the buildings where they live.

Carson has been traveling the country gathering input from agency field staff, local leaders, and residents of public housing developments. He said he doesn’t anticipate negative effects associated with Trump’s proposed budget cuts to HUD, and said he hasn’t been promising those he encounters along his tour route that he will fight the cuts.

Carson said a review of redundancies, inefficiencies, and waste should allow for the reductions to have “no material effect.” He’s working to raise the profile and use of HUD’s Section 3 program, which requires recipients of agency funding to provide “to the greatest extent possible” job training, employment, and contract opportunities to low-income residents.

Carson said the provision has been “largely ignored” because developers say residents lack necessary skills for the jobs that will be created. Carson would like to see job training begin when the ground is broken on any new housing complex.