Trump picks Ben Carson to be HUD secretary

President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Ben Carson, a onetime political rival who became one of his leading surrogates on the campaign trail, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Carson, who challenged Trump during the Republican primary, is the first African-American selected to serve in the president-elect's Cabinet.

“Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities,” Trump said Monday morning in a statement. “We have talked at length about my urban renewal agenda and our message of economic revival, very much including our inner cities. Ben shares my optimism about the future of our country and is part of ensuring that this is a Presidency representing all Americans.”

Trump’s appointment of the retired neurosurgeon, who has no housing experience, drew quick condemnation from some Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called him “disturbingly unqualified” and People for the American Way said he was “dangerously unfit.”

But many Republican and Democratic housing advocates said Carson’s name recognition and close ties to the president-elect could raise the bureaucracy’s public profile at a critical time.

“Out of the last five or six HUD secretaries, you could really only point to two of them who had direct housing experience,” said Brian Montgomery, HUD assistant secretary under President George W. Bush.

“The loyalty issue is what’s very key here,” Montgomery said. “He’ll be able to elevate the issue in the fact that he’s a household name and has been in the public domain for years.”

HUD, with an annual budget of nearly $50 billion, is a sprawling agency that oversees most of the nation's affordable housing programs and manages a $1.6 trillion mortgage portfolio. Its mission is dedicated to housing in the broadest sense--the agency plays a role in education, transportation and community redevelopment.

“I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly by strengthening communities that are most in need,” Carson said. “We have much work to do in enhancing every aspect of our nation and ensuring that our nation’s housing needs are met.”

Carson has long stressed individual strength over government aid, using his own rags-to-riches life story to illustrate the power of self help and perseverance. On Twitter, House Speaker Paul Ryan called Carson “a shining example of overcoming poverty, he will put focus on dignity rather than dependence."

“A lot of his views are in line with Speaker Ryan’s poverty agenda and trying to do things a different way,” said Robert Moss, director of government affairs at CohnReznick, a tax and accounting firm. “I expect there to be some synergy between secretary-to-be Carson and Speaker Ryan.”

Less apparent is how a Carson-led housing agency would enforce anti-discrimination laws, including the Fair Housing Act. Last year, in an op-ed for The Washington Times, Carson targeted an Obama administration rule that requires cities and localities to use data to ferret out patterns of segregation, calling it a "social-engineering" scheme.

"These government-engineered attempts to legislate racial equality create consequences that often make matters worse," Carson wrote in the Times. "Based on the history of failed socialist experiments in this country, entrusting the government to get it right can prove downright dangerous."

Carson will need to help Trump pick someone with the technical know-how to manage the Federal Housing Administration, HUD’s massive mortgage machine. That program has been all but abandoned by big banks fleeing what they call aggressive enforcement actions. Eight years after the financial collapse, mortgage credit remains out of reach for many would-be homebuyers and economists point to the slow housing recovery as a drag on overall growth.

“It’s a really bad mix of business sentiment and regulatory overreach that’s keeping this engine from providing what it could to the U.S. economy,” said David Stevens, president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association and a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.

“He’s coming in with a great opportunity here to help HUD get back on track,” Stevens said. “He clearly has the leadership skills.”

Carson is a former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. In an interview with Fox News, he cited his childhood in Detroit and his experience treating inner-city patients as qualifications for the job of HUD secretary.

"I grew up in the inner city," he said, "and have dealt with a lot of patients from that area and recognize that we cannot have a strong nation if we have weak inner cities."

In fact, a growing body of research has drawn connections between shelter and health. Low-income children and adults living in poorly maintained homes, for example, suffer disproportionately from chronic health problems such as asthma. Economists say geography, as much as genetics, can be a key determinant of economic opportunity and mobility.

"His health-care experience, that’s one of the areas I'm personally excited about," said Terri Ludwig, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit that finances and manages affordable housing. "All the evidence and research is showing that a healthy home, a healthy community can dramatically affect the trajectory of a child’s future."

Mel Martinez, who led the agency under President George W. Bush, said Carson won’t be the first HUD secretary to have a steep learning curve.

“Did I know everything about HUD the day I walked in? No. Was I able to learn? Yes,” Martinez said. “You go to school, you learn a lot, but you also surround yourself with good people."

“It’s terribly important to have a good, strong general counsel to make sure you keep yourself in the lanes. It’s a place with a lot challenges,” Martinez said. “It’s a very vast bureaucracy.”

Carson said recently through a spokesperson that he did not feel prepared to run a federal agency, but he has since changed his mind.

