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Under Ben Carson, More Children Live in HUD Housing that Fails Health and Safety Inspections
Ben Carson was confirmed as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in March 2017. Carson had zero experience in housing policy, but has said that anyone who questions his qualifications are stupid. He actually said that. Yet here we are and millions ARE SUFFERING as a result.
Apartment complexes subsidized by HUD collectively house more than 2 million low-income families around the country. Some are run by public housing authorities and others are owned by private for-profit or nonprofit landlords. By law, the owners of such complexes must pass inspections demonstrating they are decent, safe and sanitary in exchange for millions of dollars in federal money each year.
From his earliest days in office, HUD Secretary Ben Carson has repeatedly said he joined the Trump administration to fix the “rats, roaches, bed bugs, mold, lead and violence” that he witnessed as a surgeon in low-income communities. Under the Trump administration, the number of HUD apartments cited for unsafe, unhealthy and physically deteriorating living conditions has been on the rise.
An NBC News investigation has found that more than 1,000 out of HUD’s nearly 28,000 federally subsidized multifamily properties failed their most recent inspection — a failure rate that is more than 30 percent higher than in 2016, according to an analysis of HUD records.
For example:
A federal housing inspection in February confirmed living conditions were abysmal [in Hartford, CT]... 52-unit Section 8 development known as the Infill apartments. The property scored only 27 points out of 100, far below the 60 points needed to pass the mandatory health and safety inspection.
The failing score was supposed to prompt swift action by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the building’s private landlord, who has a multimillion-dollar federal contract to rent the property to low-income residents.... citations for exposed wiring, missing smoke detectors and bug infestations, the Infill units racked up 113 health and safety violations — including 24 that HUD deemed “life-threatening.”
But more than nine months after the inspection, federally mandated deadlines for action have come and gone.... black mold keeps spreading... roaches crawl all over her neighbor’s kitchen, where the ceiling collapsed this summer; the neighbor struggles to keep bedbugs from biting her 1-year-old granddaughter.
The above is an inspection that found issues, reported them, and they WERE NOT fixed. A major additional issue is that same inspection system for federally subsidized properties is failing low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities by giving PASSING grades despite horrific conditions.
.... passing scores on HUD inspections often don’t match the reality of renters’ living conditions. The two-decade-old inspection system — the federal housing agency’s primary oversight tool — is failing low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities and undermining the agency’s oversight of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded rental subsidies.
HUD has given passing inspection grades for years to dangerous buildings filled with rats and roaches, toxic mold and peeling lead-based paint, which can cause lifelong learning delays when ingested by young children. The same goes for buildings where people with disabilities have been stranded in high-rise apartments without working elevators, or where raw sewage backs up into bathtubs and utility drains. The agency has passed buildings where ceilings are caving in and the heat won’t kick on in frigid winter months as old boiler systems give out.
THIS IS ON BEN CARSON specifically:
The staff cutbacks have made it more difficult for the department to identify and fix problems quickly, current and former HUD employees say. While tenant advocates have long criticized HUD’s oversight as being too lax, a dozen current and former HUD officials — both political appointees and career staff — also describe a climate of inertia under Carson that they say is undermining the department’s work.
“There’s no urgency on anything,” said a current HUD official who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution.
This is unacceptable. This is America, right?
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