PHOTO: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, accompanied by his wife, Candy Carson, left, conducts a listening tour in Baltimore in June 2017. (Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Public Affairs)
BREAKING: The Washington Post just broke their investigation into potentially shady dealings by Secretary Carson to promote the business dealings of his family members while on HUD business. Below is the statement from CarsonWatch on this unfolding story.
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Statement from CarsonWatch on the emerging news of ethical lapses by HUD Secretary Ben Carson
We are deeply troubled by news reports that Secretary Carson ignored ethics guidance from his own HUD attorneys and opted to mix family business interests with his official duties. Instead of enriching his own family, Secretary Carson should be focusing on meeting the basic needs of every American family by solving the nation’s housing crisis, enforcing our fair housing laws and seeking full funding for HUD to serve the millions of families who are struggling to pay rent.
In his response, Secretary Carson told the Washington Post “I try to be as inclusive as possible and talk with a wide variety of people because when it comes to increasing access to affordable housing, no rock should remain unturned.” We wish this were the case. A wide variety of residents who are directly impacted by HUD programs have made heroic efforts to talk to Secretary Carson over the past 10 months. For instance, when he traveled to Miami and to Wall Street last year and to Chicago last month, public and subsidized housing residents with real concerns were not invited to the table. And when they came out anyway, to try and get the Secretary to listen, he rebuffed them.
It is only by meeting with those actually affected each and every day by HUD policies that Secretary Carson will hear the real story.
It’s a story of rising homelessness, discrimination, public housing in desperate need of repair, an explosion of rent burden and a woefully insufficient amount of resources from to meet the need.
We are pleased to see that the HUD Inspector General is initiating an investigation and look forward to a fully transparent process with appropriate consequences for any confirmed unethical behavior.
Secretary Carson needs to focus all of his energy on serving the well being of every American family – not just his own.