Trump’s presidency has been a culmination of deleterious GOP measures, circus antics and Mar-a-lago escapades. The frenzy the media has been swept into has mass-produced articles of, primarily, the negative end of the spectrum. It has become commonplace to witness liberal and conservative pundits alike cry of the end of times. This maelstrom has inhibited the American public from peeling back the facade of petty impropriety and combating the nefarious actions the Trump administration has so casually taken. This repetitive process is evident in the exponential increase of publicity focused on Ben Carson as of this week.
Carson has come under fire for his address to the employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development Monday. Within this address, Carson likened slaves to immigrants who had come to America to pursue “a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.” Though this romanticization of slavery is reprehensible and an apology from Carson should be demanded, the extent to which articles have been written on this controversy can be sharply contrasted with the extent to which the mainstream media has covered Carson’s policy changes as Secretary of Urban Housing and Development.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the New York City Housing Authority will receive at least $35 million less in federal aid this year. This will be the first of several anticipated funding cuts that are projected to total $150 million according to conversations between HUD and NYCHA officials cited by the Journal. This slash to funding will be particularly devastating as the NYCHA is the largest affordable housing program in the country and provides homes to more than 400,000 people. The federal government provides over 60 percent of the housing authority’s funding and according to Shola Olatoye, the Chair and CEO of NYCHA, a diminution in funding of that scale would “evaporate” the progress made by the housing authority in the past three years.
This is a severe change in policy that may have detrimental consequences. Low-income individuals may lose their households if these buildings do not receive federal funding and become apart of New York City’s population of 62,674 homeless. Cash-strapped and crumbling, the NYCHA already faces approximately $17 billion in unmet expenses needed to repair the sprawling system’s buildings, from leaky roofs to broken elevators. If anything the NYCHA needs more funding from the federal government, not less. Carson’s decision to slash funding is irresponsible as a multitude of low-income, urban neighborhoods depend on federal funding to keep prices affordable and their building fully functional and safe. To threaten adequate housing for urbanites is to place more obstacles in the path to success for these communities. The former HUD under the Obama administration had planned to build on existing place-based efforts such as the Promise Zones initiative, to partner with cities to help them prepare for population growth, address the impacts of climate change, and foster better environments for families. The HUD is drastically shifting course under the inexperienced hands of Ben Carson.
