HUD chief in LR speaks about bias, faces protests
Protesters chanted outside a Little Rock hotel Friday against proposed budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development while the agency’s secretary, Ben Carson, spoke inside about harassment-based housing discrimination.
Carson was the keynote speaker on the last day of the four-day Fair Housing/ Fair Lending Conference in Little Rock.
The conference is an annual event organized by the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission. The commission is a state-created regulatory agency that works with HUD to enforce the Fair Housing Act, a federal law that bans housing discrimination.
“Our people deserve safe and fair housing,” Carson told his conference audience.
He also said that HUD was increasing its focus on fair-housing violations related to sexual harassment.
The Justice Department announced Monday that it had filed a lawsuit against a Tennessee landlord who sexually harassed female tenants. The lawsuit states that the landlord tried to coerce the tenants into performing sexual acts with him and that, if they refused, he threatened retaliation.
“No one should have to
endure any type of harassment to keep a roof over their heads,” Carson said.
He noted the Tennessee case and others, including one in which a man was sexually harassed and cases of mothers being denied housing because landlords didn’t want to rent to people with children.
“Whoever it happens to, we’re going to be on the case,” he said.
He went on to say that some public-housing employees would undergo training in identifying sexual harassment.
Carson also said that the department was working to rewrite rules regarding emotional-support animals that are allowed in public housing “so that they actually make sense.”
While some people may be discriminated against because they need an animal, others abuse the policy, he said.
“We have cases where people have their little lizards and things,” he said to laughter. “They don’t consider that those might be emotionally disturbing for others.”
Carson’s speech came just two days after he announced a plan to evict residents of public housing who are not authorized to be in the country.
He said earlier in the week that he plans to tighten the verification process for public-housing applicants.
Earlier in the conference, one panelist had encouraged audience members to boycott Carson’s address because soon after former President Barack Obama left office, HUD rolled back its guidance on anti-discrimination policy regarding gay and transgender people.
Carson also toured Cumberland Towers, a Metropolitan Housing Alliance property, on Friday. The tower is undergoing renovations through the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration program.
The program has grown under Carson’s administration. It allows public-housing agencies to partner with private companies to revitalize aging housing stock.
Carson toured the tower last year while it was in earlier stages of renovation. The Arkansas Community Organizations group arranged protests during both his visits. Both times activists were protesting proposed budget cuts to Carson’s department.
“Housing is a human right,” the protesters chanted Friday near the entrance to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Little Rock.
About 20 people attended the rally, which was called to protest a proposed 18 percent cut to the HUD budget for 2020. Diane Yentel, the keynote speaker Thursday at the conference, also spoke during her address against proposed cuts. Yentel is the president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The proposed cuts include Community Development Block Grants, HOME grants and public-housing capital improvement funds.
Valencia White, a Little Rock resident who gets a rental subsidy voucher from the Section 8 program, said she protested because she worries that cuts to HUD could increase her rent. White has two young sons.
“We were out here last year for the same reason,” White said.
Another protester, Jane Ranpona, said cuts to HUD funding would hurt women trying to escape domestic violence. Ranpona worked at Women and Children First as the housing director in 2015 and said she often tried to place women in subsidized housing until they got on their feet.
“They need this kind of housing,” she said.
The group gave one of Carson’s aides a letter “urging you to drop your proposed budget for HUD,” and inviting him to return to spend a day in Arkansas with them.
“There is a great need for safe, healthy and affordable housing in our state,” the letter reads. “Renters have few protections under Arkansas law. HUD must do more to build new housing, expand the Section 8 voucher program, and provide more funding to repair public housing and project-based Section 8 properties.”
The 2019 budget proposal from President Donald Trump’s administration also included cuts to HUD, but they were not approved by Congress.
U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., also spoke at the conference, and brought up last year’s budget in a later interview. He said he thought that Carson was trying to optimize the most successful programs with the proposed cuts and that the House appropriations committee was examining the proposal.
“In the past, Congress has not gone along with cuts to HUD,” Hill said.
His speech at the conference touched on re-entry for people leaving prison, homelessness service programs and federal Opportunity Zones, which are tax incentives designed to encourage economic growth in lower-income regions.
“Opportunity Zones were a portion of the [2017] tax reform act that was signed into law and has helped create this boost in employment and higher wages in our country,” Hill said. “Opportunity Zones are critical, particularly in a small state like Arkansas.”
Carson is heading up the work on the Opportunity Zones program nationally. There are 85 in Arkansas.