Ben Carson Is Doing His Damnedest To Prevent Low-Income People From Getting Fair Housing

Ben Carson is the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and one of his missions has been to prevent low-income people from getting fair housing. Not very Christ-like of him, is it?

The former neurosurgeon announced in August that he was delaying an Obama-era rule that allowed low-income people to afford housing in areas with better schools. This was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2008, but, according toThinkProgress, Carson wanted two years “to further evaluate it.” A federal judge shut Carson down on Saturday, the Obama-era rule will start on January 1. 

According to ThinkProgress, “The Small Area Fair Market Rent rule would tweak the formula for public housing subsidies. More than five million people use ‘Section 8’ public housing vouchers to afford rent on the private market; ‘Section 8’ refers to the statute that created the subsidies. On average, voucher holders direct 30 percent of their incomes to rent, and the federal government pays the rest. The subsidy is currently based on metropolitan-wide rent; as of January 1st, the formula will change to a ZIP-code based approach.” The site adds, “The new formula empowers voucher holders — who are disproportionately African-American — to afford housing in more affluent areas, which see more job opportunities, lower crime rates, and better schools. The rule goes into effect in 23 metropolitan areas and should not cost the administration any more money.”

Why would Carson attempt to prevent low-income people from getting better education and access to job opportunities? He even called the program “mandated social-engineering.”  As we know, many of the housing laws separate communities based on race, using coded language like “crime” and “low rent” to push people into specific neighborhoods. Sadly, schools are more segregated than they were 40 years ago. Hopefully,  this Obama-era rule, which will help poor whites as well, will help all Americans gain access to affordable and safe housing. 

Article courtesy of News One