Editorial: Trump selecting Carson disregards those who need HUD’s help

Cuba Gooding Jr.’s fictionalized version of Ben Carson from TNT’s “Gifted Hands” movie would be a less surprising addition to the President-elect’s cabinet than Carson himself.

Carson, a retired neurosurgeon from Detroit, ran against and lost — badly — to Donald Trump in this year’s Republican primary. Now, in what may be his most careless appointment decision yet, Trump has tapped Carson to serve as his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Selecting Carson not only shows how little Trump cares about low-income families and inner cities, it also demonstrates how little any qualification beyond name recognition matters to the incoming administration.

Carson is a man who, in 1998, stated that the Egyptian pyramids are grain depositories constructed under the direction of Joseph, the Old Testament figure. When asked last year about this hilariously misguided and baseless belief, Carson maintained that this is still what he thinks. This is a man who has touted, with varying degrees of accuracy, attempts to assault relatives and friends with weapons, stopping only because of divine intervention. He’s falsely claimed that he got into West Point Military Academy and said the Affordable Care Act was comparable to slavery.

Some could argue that these characteristics and experiences are irrelevant to how effective Carson may be as Secretary of HUD. Unfortunately, there’s no information about Carson that would indicate how effective he may be as the leader of HUD because he has absolutely no experience in any similar capacity.

Trump’s transition team has argued that Carson’s childhood in a low-income family makes him qualified to serve as director of the nation’s entire public housing system. Sure, that’s a great qualification, if it were followed with a resume or just one related work experience to match. But by that logic alone, someone who drives a car could act as Secretary of Transportation. It’s also the same logic that makes it seem like a good idea to put a businessman with no political background in charge of the country’s executive branch.

Even Carson thought, as recently as a month ago, that he was unfit to lead a government agency. When his name was circulating as a consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services, a role his medical background at least had a relation to, Carson rejected the post.

“Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience. He’s never run a federal agency,” said Armstrong Williams, Carson’s business manager. “The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”

But that’s exactly what he’s in a position to do. Not only that, Carson has since framed his change of heart as fulfilling an obligation to Trump rather than acting on personal passion or moral interest. These are roles with real consequences. HUD in particular is a federal agency which, more than almost any other, exists to help the poorest Americans survive. It insures more than $1 trillion in housing loans and manages billions of dollars in public housing money and homelessness programs.

Low-income families in cities across the country, including Pittsburgh, are struggling to find affordable housing as availability dries up or forces them into unsafe environments. HUD oversees approximately 1.3 million units of occupied public housing, and even that’s not nearly enough. In Pennsylvania alone, 15,339 were experiencing homeless as of January 2016. Nationwide, that number grows to 549,928.

Carson is responsible for helping these people, yet we have no idea what programs he thinks would do so. HUD also investigates racial discrimination in housing systems alongside the Department of Justice. At least, it does for now — Carson is against an Obama administration rule requiring local governments to build plans for addressing housing inequality and discrimination. Policy-wise, that’s the only insight we have into Carson’s plans.

Carson’s desire to help underprivileged people in the same terrible circumstances he escaped may be genuine. But if he wants real results, he should leave the job to someone who knows what they’re doing.