WASHINGTON – Secretary of Housing and Urban Development nominee Ben Carson told a Senate committee Thursday that he would improve Native American housing by eliminating regulatory roadblocks, saying tribal poverty and substandard housing “weighed heavily on my mind.”
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and a few other senators on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which is considering Carson’s nomination, questioned Carson on how to fix the housing problems of Native Americans.
“If you want to talk about at-risk kids, they’re Native Americans …,” Tester said. “There’s just unbelievable poverty.”
As part of what he has called a holistic approach to running HUD, Carson – known for his accomplishments as a pediatric neurologist – said he wants look into drug addiction and trafficking while simultaneously getting rid of regulatory burdens for creating housing on reservations.
“It’s not just a matter of putting people in houses but understanding what’s going on in those tribal lands,” Carson said.
According to the National Congress of American Indians, Native American communities face barriers like limited private investment opportunities, low-functioning housing markets and poverty. Nearly a quarter of Native Americans spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing, a number Carson called “unacceptable.”
Block grants are a large source of funding for Indian housing, a resource Tester brought up at the hearing. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., asked Carson if Native Americans could receive “the resources they need so they get a chance at housing as well.”
Carson did not provide any specific policy plans. He said tribal substandard housing and poverty have “weighed heavily on my mind as I learn more and more about it” and that he wants tribal members to be integral in the decision-making process.
On two occasions Carson mentioned the “absurd” rules for building housing on reservations.
“If you want to build a house, you have to get permission from the HUD, permission from the Interior (Department). If you want to put a driveway on it, you have to get permission from the Department of Transportation,” Carson said. “This is craziness — so we need to bring back a little bit of common sense.”
Forty percent of Native Americans on reservations live in substandard housing compared with 6 percent of Americans living in substandard housing outside of reservations.