The proposal to increase the minimum rent paid by rental assistance beneficiaries is no longer “urgent,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said. | Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images Carson backs off plan to triple rents for poorest households HUD in April released a rental assistance overhaul plan that would have hiked the rate paid by some recipients from $50 to $150.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson is backing off plans to triple the minimum rent paid by some of the country's poorest households, citing Congress' move to defy the administration and boost his agency's budget.

The proposal to increase the minimum rent paid by rental assistance beneficiaries is no longer “urgent,” due to the additional resources in the HUD budget, Carson said Friday morning.


HUD in April released a rental assistance overhaul plan that would have hiked the rate paid by some recipients from $50 to $150.

“The reason we had to consider raising rents at all … [was] in order to not displace people who are already being taken care of,” Carson said in remarks at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “Now that the budget has been changed, the necessity for doing that is not urgent.”

Congress has ignored the Trump administration’s requests to dramatically cut the department’s budget. The fiscal 2018 omnibus boosted funding by about 10 percent, and appropriations bills under consideration now would give HUD about $12 billion more than the White House requested for fiscal 2019.

When he released the proposal — which would reshape the way 4.5 million people meet their rent by requiring recipients to contribute a greater share of their gross income or pay the higher minimum — Carson defended the decision. He said the current system creates “perverse incentives, including discouraging these families from earning more income and becoming self-sufficient.”

The proposal would also let public housing authorities impose work requirements — part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to curb anti-poverty programs and link government benefits to work stipulations.

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The plan was condemned by housing advocates, who said it would add to the burdens of the poor.

Asked on Friday if Carson had changed his position on the minimum-rent change or the rent overhaul blueprint more broadly, HUD spokesman Raffi Williams said, “Our rent reform proposal was the start of the conversation about how the government provides rental assistance.

“The way the federal government currently helps millions of Americans pay their rent is broken, unsustainable and it requires structural reform,” Williams added. “Our proposal is designed to fix the system and we look forward to working with Congress on this important issue.”

Carson initially seemed fully on board with the proposal. In a conference call with reporters when it was unveiled late April, he lamented that “every year, it takes more money, millions of dollars more, to serve the same number of households.”

He also defended the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts for his department in an appearance before Senate appropriators in April. The budget, he said, “reflects the fact that we must better serve the American people by tackling our staggering $20.6 trillion national debt.”

In remarks in May to public housing authorities, he said the “current model of public housing is unsustainable, in both dollars and common sense,” as he pitched the rent overhaul plan. Still, he already seemed stung by criticism of the minimum-rent changes, even as HUD officials defended the move on the grounds that it wouldn’t affect the majority of recipients.

“Please remember that this is only the first step on the road to reform. It is a proposal that is intended to start a conversation,” Carson told the public housing authorities a week after releasing the plan.