HUD Secretary Ben Carson Successful Advocacy for Quality Affordable Family Homeownership “In His Own Words”
Definition of “bureaucrat” – “overly concerned with procedures at the expense of efficiency or common sense” – Oxford dictionary
Since the early days of the Trump Administration, Dr. Ben Carson, as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been a non-bureaucratic advocate for affordable housing by reducing unnecessary burdens (aka regulations) that were stifling opportunities for low and middle-income families from enjoying the benefits of homeownership, particularly manufactured homes.
That advocacy and leadership continued until the last day of his tenure with the Final Rule by the Department of Housing and Urban Development amending the Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 being finalized and published in the Federal Register- the most significant update to the HUD Code in over a decade.
Click here for the complete text of the Final Rule – Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards as published in The Federal Register on 1/12/2021, pending the final HUD approval and implementation.
The Final Rule is just one important triumph for Ben Carson’s leadership that will have a lasting benefit for families seeking homeownership. Updating and eliminating bureaucratic norms and oppressive regulatory burdens will undoubtedly enhance affordable homeownership aspirations for years to come.
The following are excerpts from Carson’s own words that were posted online several months ago at AJC.Atlanta.News.Now.
“Many federal regulations are like weeds growing in the Washington swamp. If left unattended, the landscape becomes overgrown, preventing progress and innovation from taking root in our society. And just pulling weeds in a garden, you don’t always notice the fruit of your labor until you back up and look at the bigger picture.”
“Over the last three and half years, President Trump and all of us in his Cabinet have been hard at work, and when you step back and look at the Administration’s robust and unparalleled efforts to tend the regulatory landscape, Americans will reap the benefits of reduced regulatory burdens. Let’s look at my department.”
Dr. Carson then addressed the success of overcoming negative regulations hindering the eligibility of approval of condominium projects for FHA Insurance, followed by the efforts of his department and the Trump Administration to make manufactured housing more accessible to families.
“Hud has looked to manufactured housing as another source of affordable housing that could be stimulated by reducing regulatory burdens. Today, 22 million Americans live in manufactured homes. Over the past decade, we have seen major advancements in building technologies, but the last generation has not kept pace with updating manufactured housing construction standards to allow for innovation. By proposing necessary and long-overdue updates to the so-called HUD Code for manufactured housing, we are aligning federal standards with current practices, expanding the potential for manufactured housing as a financially viable option for families.”
“Since taking the helm of HUD, there is a laundry list of 2,800 old outdated ‘sub-regulatory guidance documents’- a swamp term for a de facto rule – that we have completely removed because creating law is not a job for unelected Washington bureaucrats… It is the role of Congress.”
“Regulatory cleanup may not always get the media attention it deserves, but it is proving to have a lasting impact on our nation. However, as with any garden, we need to continually and vigilantly prune our regulatory landscape to ensure it isn’t overgrown. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and steadfast direction, future generations of Americans will benefit from a federal government that allows them to grow and prosper.”
