Low-income Americans will no longer be passed over when the federal government pays the bill for construction projects, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said Thursday.
Carson said using a rule that has been ignored for much of the past 50 years is part of his different approach to running the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“It’s not how many people we can get into public housing,” Carson said during an interview with Newsmax TV. “It’s how many people we can get out of it.”
To that end, he said, HUD will require that contractors who build projects funded by HUD to work with the communities where those projects are being built to employ local low-income residents.
“We’re going to put much more emphasis on Section 3, which requires HUD builders to use low-income residents as employees during the construction of these various developments and in the redevelopment of places,” Carson said on The Joe Pags Show, referring to a law created in 1968.
“It’s largely ignored right now. We’re going to change that by emphasizing it in a different way and incentivizing people to use it,” Carson said.
Carson said that while architects and engineers are in the planning phase of a project, training providers can use that time to teach nearby residents the construction skills needed to work on those projects when the building begins.
“Most major construction and reconstruction projects are known about well more than a year in advance,” Carson said. “If you know that already, why not prepare the people, begin to train the people, ahead of time — so that when you’re ready to do it, you have the workforce that’s necessary?”
Carson said that approach not only rebuilds a community, it helps those in it rebuild their lives.
“If you give them those skills, you’re giving them something that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.
https://www.westernjournalism.com/carson-hud-funded-projects-will-grow-jobs-low-income-americans/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_campaign=WJDailyEmail&utm_content=2017-04-22
Barbara SmithThis is so different from what we have seen in the past. Ben Carson is a cut above the norm. He plans to really help the people he serves. We are blessed to have him running HUD.God Bless Ben Carson
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