HUD—the Envy of Cuba, Venezuela, East Germany

The same people who thought it was hunky-dory for a man with a background of community organizer and two years in the Senate to fill the shoes of President of the U.S., are now outraged that a neurosurgeon might head HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development).

That’s right. Progressives are outraged that Dr. Ben Carson might head what Francis Menton calls “government subsidized housing.”

HUD operates mostly outside of the consciousness of most of the public. But you only have to look into it for a few minutes to realize that the business of HUD is creating poverty traps to make the supposed “beneficiaries” into government dependents for life. HUD is not merely a failure as an anti-poverty program; it is a disaster. It operates substantially on the model of socialism (“to each according to his needs”; assets in public ownership), and it achieves results that would make Cuba or Venezuela or East Germany proud. Readers here know that HUD’s flagship, the New York City Housing Authority, is an unspeakable disaster at every level. Its properties, housing about 7% of New York City’s population, sit on vast acreage of prime real estate — some of it (e.g., miles of Manhattan waterfront) among the most valuable in the world — and its residents receive subsidies in many cases worth $50,000 and $100,000 per family per year, and yet the poverty rate in its projects exceeds 50%, turnover is almost non-existent as residents remain in poverty for life, the rents cover barely a third of operating costs and nothing for capital projects or property taxes, and HUD throws some $2 billion down the rat hole every year only to maintain the poverty and dependency.

Dr. Ben Carson did not have much to say specifically about HUD during the presidential campaign. But in a speech at a Conservative Political Action Conference in 2015, he urged that the next president “get rid of dependency” some Americans have on the U.S. government.

“We need to understand what true compassion is to reach out to individuals who think that being dependent is reasonable as long as they feel safe,” said Carson, the first speaker to address this year’s annual keynote conservative conference. “It’s not compassion to pat them on the head and say, ‘There, there, I’m going to take care of all your needs, your health care, your food.’ That’s the opposite of compassion.

You can see why progressives loath this guy. Read more from the Manhattan Contrarian here.

Henry Cisneros on Ben Carson as potential HUD Secretary

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Debbie Young

Debbie, editor-in-chief of Richardcyoung.com, has been associate editor of Dick Young’s investment strategy reports for over three decades. When not in Key West, Debbie spends her free time researching and writing in and about Paris and Burgundy, France, cooking on her AGA Cooker, and practicing yoga.