Prosperity Indiana's policy team is already hard at work in the halls of the Statehouse trying to advance critical priorities. To read our 2017 policy agenda and state policy priorities, click here.  We hope our members will join our advocacy efforts by attending our Statehouse Day on Tuesday, Jan. 31^st. For more information and to RSVP, click here.

This blog will elaborate on progress already underway in working towards our 2017 state advocacy goals below, but as we referenced in our 30^th Anniversary and Prosperity Indiana Summit policy sessions, it is important to understand the context of broader policy priorities dominating legislators’ attention.

Top General Assembly Priorities from Legislative Leaders

House Agenda:
House leaders unveiled their top priorities for this session during Organization Day last November.  The plans were elaborated on in the House Republican’s “Investing In Our Future Plan.”  Speaker Brian Bosma has outlined the following as the key focus for House leadership:

• Passing a balanced state budget
• Passing a 20-year infrastructure plan, including a gas tax increase, new special fuel and motor carrier surcharges, and a new annual fee on all vehicles to address the more than $1 billion in additional funding per year needed to maintain roads and bridges
• Expanding education opportunities – while not favoring a universal expansion of pre-k, the Speaker did express support for expanding Indiana’s existing pre-k pilot program and for improving testing in the state’s classrooms
• Expanding job creation and workforce development- the Speaker referenced the Department of Workforce Development’s estimate that the state will need to fill 1 million jobs by 2022. He pledged that House members will advance policies to meet the training and educational needs to fit employee/employer needs.
• Addressing the opioid and heroin epidemic and public safety needs- Speaker Bosma committed to focusing on “efforts to expand substance abuse and treatment options.”  He also called for an increase in Indiana State Police salaries.

Senate Agenda:
January 10, Senate leadership unveiled their agenda, which largely mirrors priorities of their House counterparts with some minor additions and some differences in their approach.  Senate President Pro Tem David Long listed the following as specific priorities:

• Passing another balanced, two-year state budget
• Creating a long-term road funding plan – Sen. Long would not commit to a specific figure on how much taxes should be increased to pay for roads, but did indicate the Senate would start to work with the House blueprint and identify new sources of funding.
• Passing a balanced budget amendment that would “prohibit state spending from exceeding state revenue unless two-thirds of the General Assembly deems it necessary to use emergency spending measures”
• Fighting opioid abuse through prevention, enforcement, treatment and data collection measures
• Addressing educational needs by replacing the ISTEP exam, improving career and technical education in the school funding formula, and fixing the overall structure of workforce development
• Fixing Indiana’s e-liquids law by reforming regulations for e-liquids manufacturers

Top Administrative Priorities

On Monday January 9, Governor Eric Holcomb and Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch were sworn in during inaugural ceremonies.  Last week, however, on January 5, then Governor-elect Holcomb and Lt. Governor-elect Crouch unveiled their Next Level 2017 Agenda. The proposals referenced a number of the key legislative priorities put forth by legislative leaders and include some additional ideas.  Those proposals include:

• Investing $1 Billion to make Indiana an innovation hub over the next 10 years through investments in high-growth early stage and mid-cap Indiana companies, continue resources for the Regional Cities program, and creating entrepreneurship grants to support programs and partnerships with Indiana higher education institutions and communities
• Creating  a 20-year plan to fund roads and bridges, mirroring on legislative leaders’ plans
• Improving workforce readiness, which includes an appointed Secretary of Education beginning in 2021 to replace the Superintendent of Public Instruction, as well as doubling the state’s investment in pre-kindergarten
• Addressing the drug epidemic by creating the position of Executive Director for Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Enforcement in the Governor’s office,  giving local officials the authority to establish syringe exchange programs, limiting controlled substance prescriptions and refills, and enhancing penalties for pharmacy robberies
• Improving government service by modernizing the state Department of Revenue computer system, raising pay for Indiana State Police, upgrading Indiana State Police labs, analyzing waste, fraud and abuse in Indiana’s Medicaid and unemployment insurance programs, exempting military pensions from the state income tax, and expanding the nurse-family partnership to combat infant mortality.

Top Prosperity Indiana Priorities

As referenced above, the Prosperity Indiana public policy team, which includes Kathleen Lara, Andy Fraizer, Steve Hoffman (the President Prosperity Indiana’s Board of Directors and the Public Policy Committee Chair), and Ice Miller, LLP representatives (Prosperity Indiana's lobbying partners), is already tracking and analyzing a number of bills to support and oppose in this legislative session and accordingly, meeting with legislators to advance and oppose a variety of legislative proposals. 

For Prosperity Indiana’s comprehensive bill tracking list and link to more information about legislation, click here [Member Access]. This list is exhaustive of all introduced legislation that pertains to any Prosperity Indiana member issue area.  

For a more refined review of key legislation in critical areas for members, review Prosperity Indiana’s top priority bill tracker by clicking here [Member Access]. The identified bills on that list are most likely to proceed at the State House or of greatest concern to Prosperity Indiana’s policy team.  Please keep in mind that the deadline bill filing is Thursday, January 12, so our tracker information will be updated as additional bill information becomes available.

Prosperity Indiana has four key affirmative priorities for the 2016 Indiana General Assembly and one key area of defense thus far.

Affirmative Priorities:

• Clarifying Charitable Affordable Housing Property Tax Exemption:  
  SB 559 PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING (Eckerty, D) - Provides a property tax exemption for affordable rental housing property when the property does not otherwise qualify for a property tax exemption. Provides that, in order to qualify for the exemption, the owner must meet the criteria applied by the Internal Revenue Service in determining if an organization that provides low income housing is considered charitable because it relieves the poor and distressed.  Clarifying state code on property tax exemption for non-profit owned affordable housing. For background on this issue and a summary of the proposal to be introduced this session, click on the following one-pager summaries below.
  Background on Property Tax Exemption Issue
  Summary of Current Proposal
  
  
• Protecting Consumers, Promoting Economic Stability Through the Extension of the Foreclosure Filing Fee:
  We have worked with two legislative leaders to introduce bills to extend the Foreclosure Filing Fee, which helps fund statewide foreclosure counseling training, extensive counseling services and court coordinator-assisted mortgage workouts for Indiana borrowers at risk of losing their homes.  Those bills include:
• • SB 227 FORECLOSURE COUNSELING AND EDUCATION FEE (Merritt, J) - Removes a provision providing for the July 1, 2017, expiration of the $50 mortgage foreclosure counseling and education fee that must be paid by a party filing an action to foreclose a mortgage.
  • HB 1097 FORECLOSURE COUNSELING AND EDUCATION FEE (Burton, W) - Extends from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2019, the date for the expiration of the $50 mortgage foreclosure counseling and education fee that must be paid by a party filing an action to foreclose a mortgage.
• Empowering Low-Income Hoosier Families Through the Removal of the Asset Limit Test for SNAP Eligibility:
  SB 154 REMOVAL OF ASSET LIMITS FOR SNAP ELIGIBILITY (Merritt, J) - Requires the division of family resources to: (1) implement within the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) an expanded eligibility category, which does not consider an individual's value of assets in determining SNAP eligibility; and (2) notify the United States Department of Agriculture of the implementation of expanded categorical eligibility under SNAP.
  This is critical to help low-income families as the current asset limit test disincentivizes savings, which is a critical step toward self-sufficiency.
  
  
• Empowering Low-Income Hoosier Families Through the Expansion of Pre-K Educational Opportunities:
  One of our top state legislative priorities in 2017 is expanding economic opportunities for Hoosier families, including childcare resources and pre-k expansion for low-income households.  As part of that effort, we are partnering with the All IN 4 Pre-K campaign.  A number of bills have been introduced this session aimed at pre-k expansion and are included in our bill trackers, but Prosperity Indiana’s policy team is still examining those proposals before endorsing a specific approach.  Stay tuned to this blog post for important updates.

Defensive Priorities:

• Protecting Consumers, Promoting Economic Stability Through Opposition to Predatory Lending Expansion:
  SB 245: LONG TERM SMALL LOANS (Holdman, T) - Provides that a lender that is licensed by the department of financial institutions to engage in small loans may enter into a transaction for a long term small loan with a borrower. Defines a long term small loan as a loan that: (1) is entered into by a licensed small loan lender and a borrower; (2) has a principal amount of at least $605 and not more than $2,500; and (3) is payable in installments over a term of not more than 24 months. Provides that with respect to a long term small loan, a lender may contract for and receive a monthly loan finance charge that: (1) does not exceed 20% of the principal; and (2) is earned by the lender on a daily basis using the simple interest method.
  One of Prosperity Indiana’s central 2017 advocacy priorities is preventing the predatory loan products and practices that disproportionately affect low-income consumers.  That is precisely what SB 245 would do.  The proposal offers a longer-term installment loan carrying interest rates rate exceeding 200% APR.  For example, a $1,000 loan due in 6 months will carry a 230% APR and on a $2,500 loan due in 24 months, a borrower will pay back over $12,000.  These rates are significantly higher than other installment loans already offered in Indiana and would hurt vulnerable consumers. Click on the summary one-pager below to learn more about the detrimental impact the proposal will have on low-income consumers.
  SB 245, By the Numbers

Please stay tuned to our blog for critical action alerts and legislative updates as the 120^th General Assembly session continues.  Prosperity Indiana is grateful to our members for their work, advocacy, and partnership!

Riley Area Development Corporation (RADC) is a non-profit community development corporation that has used affordable housing to transform urban neighborhoods in and near downtown Indianapolis.

RADC is currently hiring for these two positions:

Mass Avenue/Brookside Industrial Corridor Program Manager

The Program Manager is responsible for the development, facilitation, execution and administrative support of the Mass Avenue/Brookside Industrial Corridor Program. The Program Manager must be professional, entrepreneurial, energetic, imaginative, well organized and capable of functioning effectively in independent situations. The Program Manager is the primary contact person responsible for coordinating all Program activities and Program implementation, coordination of select projects and any other responsibilities deemed appropriate.

See full job description for more details.

Development Project Manager

The Development Project manager is responsible for project development and implementation and communications; shaping, managing and driving the implementation of community development projects and directing the implementation of an effective outreach and communication campaign to educate and cultivate support for projects. The Development Project Manager is a full-time professional position. However, if an outstanding candidate requires a part-time position, the Executive Director may negotiate a reduced scope of responsibilities. Compensation is commensurate with experience.

See full job description for more details.

If you are interested in either position please submit your resume including attached letters of recommendations to the following email address: strickland@rileyarea.org

Prosperity Indiana is seeking a part-time Administrative Assistant. The position of Administrative Assistant reports to the Associate Executive Director and supports the Prosperity Indiana staff with tasks that build the capacity of Prosperity Indiana, its members, and partners. The position will provide administrative support for the organization and Prosperity Indiana’s training program. The successful candidate will be customer service-oriented, write well and communicate effectively, and understand bookkeeping. Attention to detail and accuracy are a must in order to successfully juggle and accomplish multiple tasks. 

For more details, click to see the full job description.

Interested in joining our team?

E-mail and/or mail resume, cover letter, and recommendations to

Jessica Love, Associate Executive Director, jlove@prosperityindiana.org
Prosperity Indiana
202 East Market Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Year-end is timely to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments and survey the coming year. Having celebrated Prosperity Indiana’s 30^th Anniversary in November, reflection also includes the many years of impact. If you missed the celebration and Prosperity Indiana Summit, where we unveiled the new brand identity, I invite you to watch the commemorative video.

For 30 years, the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development has focused on the assets of local people, mobilizing collective action to advance Indiana’s communities. Now doing business under a new name, Prosperity Indiana, our mission hasn’t changed; we are still dedicated to supporting a network of organizations that build resilient families and vital communities. The new brand embodies a more authentic and approachable way to convey our vision and comprehensive work to strengthen Indiana communities.

As you think about the highlights below, remember Prosperity Indiana delivers services in four ways to members: advocate, community builder and connector, capacity builder, and funder.

As an advocate, the Prosperity Indiana policy team was a coalition partner to improve Indiana’s Individual Development Accounts (IDA) program. With member engagement, including diligent efforts by the TRI-CAP staff, policymakers added vehicle purchase as an eligible use of savings in the IDA program. Partnering with the City of Gary Redevelopment Commission, the policy team also advocated for experimental tools for Lake County to better address the issues of vacancy and abandonment, including challenges of 1) serial tax delinquency, 2) the tax sale process, and 3) disposition of redevelopment commission owned properties.

Again in coalition, the policy team stopped the expansion of predatory payday lending. As the policy team looks ahead, 2017 will again require mobilization on this issue of payday lending. Other priority issues for the year ahead include uniform property tax assessment for mission-based affordable housing and continuation of the mortgage foreclosure filing fee as a source of funding for housing counseling and mortgage foreclosure prevention. At the federal and state administrative policy junction, the policy team worked with the National Low Income Housing Coalition to deliver a webinar and generate member feedback to inform Indiana’s use of the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).

As a connector, we delivered the Prosperity Indiana Summit. Over 200 people attended with 36 percent attending the placemaking sessions, 26 percent participating in the policymaking sessions and the balance attending some of each track. Sixty-six (66) percent of attendees reported extreme satisfaction with the content and logistics. The annual awards luncheon honored leadership and program impact in the following winners:

• John Niederman Rural Development Leadership Award
  Charles Heintzelman, Milestone Ventures
• Michael Carroll Community Economic Development Leadership Award
  James Taylor, John Boner Neighborhood Centers
• Robert O. Zdenek Staff Member of the Year Award
  Gladys Muhammad, South Bend Heritage Foundation
• Key Award for Services Program of the Year
  Back Home in Indiana Alliance, Indianapolis

Another connecting strategy is our role in providing staff support for the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network. In 2016, the Network was selected to participate in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Your Money, Your Goals cohort and trained 98 organizations and 150 people on this financial capabilities curriculum. Thanks to generous support from the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network also built partner capacity for asset-building strategies in Northwest Indiana (NWI) with the Porter County United Way.

We also convene communities of practice, or affinity groups, to provide members opportunities to exchange resources, information, and ideas to bolster each other’s work. The details and discussion notes from the various affinity groups are documented on the forum pages.

As a community builder, Prosperity Indiana continued work with the Legacy Foundation in Lake County to advance comprehensive community development through the Neighborhood Spotlight program. This year’s Neighborhood Spotlight communities were Gary’s Emerson neighborhood and Griffith, where Prosperity Indiana provided collective impact planning and capacity building support to residents and local leaders throughout the year.

Other community building strategies included a partnership with member the Indiana Cooperative Development Center to deliver a one-day conference on worker cooperatives as a community economic development tool for financial empowerment and a similar conference on Cooperatives and Communities of Color. The conference on worker cooperatives highlighted them as a business succession strategy to generate local wealth and revitalized downtowns. The Cooperatives and Communities of Color conference focused on strategies for equity and social justice from community ownership. Lastly, with support from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), Prosperity Indiana worked with member Fifth Third Bank to shape a community benefits agreement, which was announced last month to great acclaim for a robust and collaborative process.

Capacity building strategies included another year of robust training and technical assistance consulting. Trainings this year included Housing Counseling, Foreclosure Basics, Developing an Affordable Housing Project from the Ground Up, Certified Aging in Place Specialist, Certified Green Professional, Effective Non-Profit Boards for Real Estate Development, Abandoned Housing Strategies, and Placemaking Basics. For 2016, the capacity building team delivered these courses in a series of "mini-institutes" that allowed participants to encounter more professionals in the community economic development field, learn from others through affinity groups and receive technical assistance from the training team in some cases. Training benefitted 123 participants across these classes, reporting high satisfaction. We also expanded our webinar offerings, covering a variety of topics and archived on the member portal. Looking ahead to 2017, the capacity building team is planning the training calendar now with our partner and funder, Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. The team is also working with the board of directors to plan and implement a comprehensive community development institute, as outlined in Prosperity Indiana’s strategic plan. You will hear more about this in the weeks ahead.

Consulting work with members this year has included projects in organizational development, project and program development, and community and strategic planning. With a grant from member Vectren Foundation, Prosperity Indiana is supporting quality of life planning and convening in a neighborhood in Anderson. Through a partnership with the National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders, the capacity building team supported leadership development in Sheridan in partnership with member Hamilton County Area Neighborhood Development. In Huntingburg, the local public housing authority worked with the team to increase their housing development capacity through a non-profit development strategy.

Alongside member City of Michigan City, the team has supported neighborhood planning activity using a comprehensive community development strategy. Members also engaged the capacity building team for grantwriting and grant review, including Terramark and Pass the Torch for Women Foundation. Early in the year, Hope of Evansville engaged the team for strategic planning. Prosperity Indiana staff also assisted United North East Community Development Corp. with updating their housing strategy and providing data analysis services. In collaboration with member KW Consultants, the team is working on a housing needs assessment for the Town of Speedway. The capacity building team has also been working with Coburn Place to develop a housing strategy in light of changing funding.

As a funder, Prosperity Indiana continues to support members in local communities with a desire to collaborate in fundraising through Homeward Bound. Another 2016 accomplishment was our role in helping community development financial institution (CDFI) members Brightpoint and HomesteadCS establish Community Loan Centers^TM upon receiving grant funding from JP Morgan Chase PRO Neighborhoods to create an alternative to payday lending.

In 2017, the Indiana Assets & Opportunity Network will make grants and provide technical assistance to five organizations participating in a learning cluster integrating financial capability. The Network has found lack of access to financial planning resources to be an obstacle to achieving financial stability. Research indicates that integrating financial capability – understood as knowledge plus skills plus resources – into existing  programs is the best strategy for focusing on the family balance sheet. The following organizations are participating in the learning cluster: Dress for Success empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire, and development tools. Connected by 25 creates paths of success for young people aging out of foster care. Families First delivers family and individual counseling services. Coburn Place provides transitional housing for those who have experienced domestic violence. EmployIndy provides workforce development. Participating organizations will develop theory of change, resource assessment, and planning logic models for intended financial capability strategies. The Network will develop case studies from organizations to understand lessons learned and promote achievements.

Prosperity Indiana will also reprise an updated version of its Solar Uniting Neighbors (SUN) grant program to fund solar photovoltaic projects and create community discussions about sustainability. Thank you to member Citizens Action Coalition, which has been a champion of the program and helped secure investment from Duke Energy. Prosperity Indiana recently hired Allyson Mitchell as Director of Sustainability to implement this program and build a portfolio of sustainability strategy support with members.

If you think there is a way Prosperity Indiana can aid your work and strengthen our communities, do not hesitate to call us at 317.454.8533 or email us at info@prosperityindiana.org.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) recently presented a webinar, The Changing Post-Election Landscape for Affordable Housing, focusing on the work needed to move affordable housing policy in this new political landscape. 

The webinar recording and PowerPoint slides are now available on their website. 

Click here to read more of NLIHC's outlook on the political landscape for affordable housing policy under the new Administration.

Interested in other webinars from NLIHC? Click here to view their webinar offerings.

Member organizations of Prosperity Indiana are on the frontline in local communities tackling the causes and effects of poverty. In consultation with current member Indiana Legal Services Inc. and partner the Community Development Clinic at University of Notre Dame, we believe the support of a legal aid organization to support these member organizations is a missing resource that Prosperity Indiana may be able to support. 

We need data to better understand what legal needs exist in our membership and partnership networks and how Prosperity Indiana may address these needs as part of a comprehensive bundle of services. Please complete this five-minute survey on how your organization and your community partners use legal services in pursuit of community economic development and poverty eradication. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/commdevlegalneeds

We understand strategies for tackling poverty, creating assets and investment for low wealth communities, and meeting local needs can utilize a variety of incorporation strategies—nonprofit, cooperative, b-corps, and other social impact organizations and corporations. Please share this survey widely.

Prosperity Indiana is exploring a multi-pronged strategy. Hire a staff attorney able to meet the specific legal needs at a particular time on a discounted fee for service basis for member organizations. Also, identify a statewide pro bono pool of attorneys to meet the needs of community development organizations serving people and places experiencing poverty. We could coordinate and track volunteer attorneys to ensure the timely delivery of services. We envision recruiting lawyers across a diversity of practice areas (real estate, business, intellectual property, nonprofit, tax, finance, labor, etc.) to provide legal assistance to community-based organizations. Lastly, share information and model documents among attorneys. 

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Prosperity Indiana's partners at the Indiana Institute for Working Families are hiring a Legislative and Communications Assistant for the 2017 session of the Indiana General Assembly. Do you know someone with a commitment to Indiana's working families who'd like to gain experience learning the policy process in the Statehouse? This could be the job for them. The Institute is accepting applications through December 9, 2016. 

Download the PDF job description here.

Prosperity Indiana is the state partner and member of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed cutting federal spending for everything but defense over the next ten years—a plan that could decimate affordable housing programs and increase housing poverty and homelessness.

NLIHC and the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding (CHCDF) are preparing a national report on the broad, positive impacts of Department of Housing and Urban Development and US Department of Agriculture (USDA)  affordable housing programs to share with Members of Congress. As the state partner, we are helping to collect a wide range of success stories to demonstrate how these programs have helped low income families living in rural, suburban, and urban communities nationwide.

It is important that we collect Indiana success stories. Senator-elect Young, Represenatives Brooks, Bucshon, and Messer are key Members of Congress for messaging.  Submit a success story here. The deadline to submit a success story is December 15, 2016. The report is slated for publication in early 2017.

Prosperity Indiana announces Allyson Mitchell as the organization’s Director of Sustainability. Mitchell will lead the organization’s strategies to integrate environmental sustainability into the network of nonprofit, government, and other community and business leaders committed to comprehensive community development. Andy Fraizer, Prosperity Indiana’s Executive Director, said “Allyson joining the team brings additional perspective and expertise to our work. Prosperous communities are socially just, environmentally sustainable, and transformed by local initiative.”

The Director of Sustainability develops programming that engages, coordinates, and convenes members to help them integrate sustainability principles and practices into their communities and organizations. The position is a technical assistance resource on sustainability, including energy systems, green infrastructure, community resiliency, building sciences, food systems, and waste management.

Before joining the staff of Prosperity Indiana, Mitchell owned a sustainability planning and consulting company and worked with Prosperity Indiana on the development and implementation of the first phase of the Solar Uniting Neighbors Program. She has an extensive background in environmental sustainability, public policy, design, and law. Mitchell has worked in the fields of landscape architecture, commercial real estate development, nonprofit management, and higher education. Formerly, she was a founding member of the City of Indianapolis’ Office of Sustainability. 

Mitchell graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Landscape Horticulture & Design and immediately went on to graduate studies at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment to complete a Master of Landscape Architecture degree. In 2012, she graduated from Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law with a Juris Doctor (JD) degree. In her spare time, Mitchell teaches a graduate-level course, Sustainability Assessment, at Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis’ (IUPUI) School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). Mitchell is from Greensburg, Ind. and lives in Indianapolis with her husband and two young sons.

Status of the Appointment:

Despite a confirmation reported by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that Dr. Ben Carson had accepted the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the paper issued a correction statement quoting Alonso Williams, Carson’s spokesman, as saying “President-elect Donald Trump is considering Ben Carson to be the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A previous version of this article incorrectly said that he was offered and accepted the post, citing Mr. Carson’s spokesman. (Nov. 23)”

The premature announcement follows a Nov. 22 tweet from President-elect Trump, “I am seriously considering Dr. Ben Carson as the head of HUD. I've gotten to know him well--he's a greatly talented person who loves people!”

That tweet was unexpected as many earlier articles speculated that candidates for the position at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) featured well-known names in the housing field such as Pam Patenaude, the president of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America's Families and Bob Woodson, the founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise.

One day later, Carson posted the following message on his Facebook account, fueling rumors he was likely to accept the post.

“Winning the presidential election was only the first step for those who love traditional America and do not wish to fundamentally change it. Now the hard work begins of restoring the values that made us great. We must bring back the compassion and the unity that empowers us and banish the divisiveness that weakens us. After serious discussions with the Trump transition team, I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone. We have much work to do in strengthening every aspect of our nation and ensuring that both our physical infrastructure and our spiritual infrastructure is solid. An announcement is forthcoming about my role in helping to make America great again.”

It now seems the candidate for the position will be taking the long Thanksgiving weekend to mull the decision, as he told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that he would be “thinking and praying over it seriously over the holiday. Our inner cities are in terrible shape. They definitely need some real attention. There have been so many promises made and nothing has been done. So it certainly is something that has been a long-term interest of mine.”

If accepted, this would put Carson at the helm of the 50-year-old agency, charged with overseeing housing programs that affect over 5 million low-income households, through managing the Federal Housing Administration, public housing, low-income rental assistance, and homelessness programs, to name a few.  

This offer under consideration by Carson poses a number of questions for housing and community development advocates as little is known about what the former presidential candidate’s specific positions on federal housing policies. 

Background:

According to Carson’s autobiography, he was raised in a single-parent, low-income household in Detroit and later in life, became a renowned in the pediatric neurosurgery department at Johns Hopkins Hospital before eventually entering the political arena.  In 2015, he entered the race to become the Republican nominee for President and after failing to secure the nomination, he became a highly visible surrogate for President-elect Trump.

Carson’s upbringing seems to have influenced a number of his social policy positions that may shed light on his views on federal programs designed to support low-income households.  A 2015 article from the Washington Post quoted Carson as saying, “I don’t want to get rid of any safety net programs. I want to create an environment where they won’t be needed.”

A 2014 article from Politico provided additional detail on this stance, quoting Carson in a conversation surrounding education issues as saying:

 “What I prefer is to create mechanisms whereby all people can move upward. If you happen to be in an affluent community, there’s a lot more money for the schools, better facilities, everything. All that does is perpetuate the situation. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put the money in a pot and redistribute it throughout the country so that public schools are equal, whether you’re in a poor area or a wealthy area?”

In yet another article regarding his economic policy positions from the Baltimore Sun in 2015, then candidate Carson was quoted as saying, "Most of the people that I have heard from in the political arena, they say, 'one of the big solutions to our problems is we have to remove the entitlements,'" Carson said. "And I say, no, what you have to do is fix the economy. ... When people have viable options, that's when you start pulling entitlements."

Beyond those references to economic mobility and federal social programs, the most specific information to be gleaned regarding his stance on housing programs is from a 2015 op-ed Carson wrote for the Washington Times on the Obama Administration’s efforts to address housing discrimination through the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule.  AFFH is a federal rule stating that local governments and states that receive Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME), Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), and Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA), as well as public housing agencies (PHAs) are required to affirmatively further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act.  The regulation is aimed at strengthening local jurisdictions’ and public housing agencies’ fair housing obligations, through an improved structure and process whereby HUD provides program participants with guidance, data, and an assessment template from which they would complete an assessment of fair housing (the AFH). 

Previous blog posts from Prosperity Indiana (formerly IACED) explaining AFFH can be found below:

• Prosperity Indiana Administrative Policy Agenda
• Fair Housing Assessment Tool
• AFFH Rule Comment

From Carson’s op-ed stance, his appointment to the HUD post would be concerning for Prosperity Indiana, as our organization advocates to uphold AFFH on the grounds it better 

provides fair housing choice, reduces ethnic and racial concentrations of poverty, improves access to transportation, and improves quality of life for all Hoosiers regardless of race, color, religion, disability, or familial status.  

 In that op-ed, Carson characterized the AFFH effort the following way:

“Undaunted by the failed socialist experiments of the 1980s, the Obama administration has recently implemented a new Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rule designed to “desegregate” housing by withholding funds from communities that fail to demonstrate their projects “affirmatively further” fair housing.”

He went on to compare it to other seemingly well-intended efforts to decrease desegregation, such as busing to reduce segregation in schools as exacerbating the issues instead of improving them.  Carson does point out that segregation and wealth disparity in the country’s communities were not entirely the result of forced integration, stating, “Other private and public housing policies such as redlining, restrictive covenants, discriminatory steering by real estate agents, and restricted access to private capital — all attempts at social engineering — exacerbated the suburban segregation in the 1970s and ‘80s.”  It is clear in the article, however, that he views the AFFH rule as a government overstep that will not achieve its intended aims.

“It is true that the Fair Housing Act and other laws have greatly reduced explicit discrimination in housing, but significant disparities in housing availability and quality persist. To address them, The Obama administration’s new agency rules rely on a tortured reading of the Fair Housing laws to empower the Department of Housing and Urban Development to “affirmatively promote” fair housing, even in the absence of explicit discrimination.  The new rule would not only condition the grant of HUD funds to municipalities on building affordable housing as is the case today, but would require that such affordable housing be built primarily in wealthier neighborhoods with few current minority residents and that the new housing be aggressively marketed to minorities. In practice, the rule would fundamentally change the nature of some communities from primarily single-family to largely apartment-based areas by encouraging municipalities to strike down housing ordinances that have no overtly (or even intended) discriminatory purpose — including race-neutral zoning restrictions on lot sizes and limits on multi-unit dwellings, all in the name of promoting diversity… There are reasonable ways to use housing policy to enhance the opportunities available to lower-income citizens, but based on the history of failed socialist experiments in this country, entrusting the government to get it right can prove downright dangerous.”

Prosperity Indiana’s policy team will continue to follow any new statements from Carson regarding this position and any revealing statements on a potential housing and community development agenda should he accept the role to lead HUD. Stay tuned next week for updates on this announcement and additional coverage of cabinet appointments likely to impact the work of Prosperity Indiana members.

What Our Partners Are Saying:

National partners of Prosperity Indiana have begun to weigh in on the announcement, given the President-elect’s stated strong consideration of Carson for the role.  The following press release was issued Wednesday, Nov. 23, by Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition: http://nlihc.org/press/releases/7316. Read speculation on additional candidates for the HUD Secretary from Rooflines, blog of Shelterforce.