“Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson spoke at the National Multifamily Housing Council’s Fall Meeting.
In his remarks, he highlighted the issues facing the American housing market and laid out plans to address housing shortages and persistent poverty.
Keeping with his previous rhetoric on the subject, Carson reiterated his commitment to finding a way to cycle people up and out of public housing developments.
Carson laid out three components of his plan for reforming public housing.
The first is eliminating policies that increase rents as income goes up.
“The current policies ensure that the more our residents earn, the more rent they have to pay. Where then, is the incentive to work, or to get a better paying job, or have two parents living together and sharing their wages? There isn’t any, which really defies common sense. Our rent reform proposal, therefore, removes these perverse incentives by having a three-year recertification of income — and removes the requirement that tenants must report any income increases, immediately. One could even say it’s like not having to pay taxes for three years,” Carson said in his remarks.
The second is to allow public housing authorities the freedom to implement any of the Choice Rent structures for their properties.
The third aspect of Carson’s plan is to use HUD funds to provide families in public housing with programs and resources that he hopes will help break poverty cycles.
Carson commented on the imbalance between supply and demand in the market and essentially said that private investment through public-private partnerships are the key to addressing the lack of affordable housing in the U.S.”
Members interested in housing issues might also wish to look at the following materials ANCOR compiled this week for your convenience:
A comparison of Congressional and Administration housing proposals, created by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). CBPP also expressed concerns about these proposals’ potential harmful effects for people with disabilities.
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