HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson Opinion: Removing Manufactured Housing Red Tape to Improve Housing Situation for Families
Since the early days of the Trump Administration, Dr. Ben Carson, as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has been an advocate for affordable housing by reducing unnecessary burdens that are stifling opportunities for low and middle-income families from enjoying the benefits of homeownership, particularly manufactured housing.
The following are excerpts from an opinion piece posted online at AJC. Atlanta. News. Now. In his own words:
“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 like 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. He continues:
“ HUD has looked to manufactured housing as another source of affordable housing that could be stimulated by reducing regulatory burdens. Today, 22million 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“Since taking the helm of HUD, there is a laundry list of 2,800 old and outdated ‘sub-regulatory guidance documents’ – a swamp term for a de facto rule – that we have completely removed because creating law is not a job for unelected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.”
