Tag Archives: HUD

CNN reports: Newly released emails cast doubt on claims by Secretary Ben Carson and his spokesman that he had little or no involvement in the purchase of a $31,000 furniture set for his Department of Housing and Urban Development dining room. Emails show Carson and his wife selected the furniture themselves. An August email from a career administration staffer, with …

The Huffington Post reports: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is changing the mission statement of his agency, removing promises of inclusive and discrimination-free communities. In a March 5 memo addressed to HUD political staff, Amy Thompson, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, explained that the statement is being updated “in an effort to align HUD’s mission with …

Miranda Blue reports at Right Wing Watch: People For the American Way, the organization that runs Right Wing Watch, filed suit against the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today to demand the release of documents concerning reported changes in federal policy toward LGBTQ people. Right Wing Watch had filed Freedom of Information Act requests …

Talking Points Memo reports: A spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Urban Development told TPM Thursday that Secretary Ben Carson had ordered the agency to rescind an order for $31,561 worth of dining room furniture. “At the request of the Secretary, the agency is working to rescind the order for the dining room set,” HUD spokesperson Raffi Williams told …

The Guardian reports: A senior career official in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has alleged that she was demoted and replaced with a Donald Trump appointee after refusing to break the law by funding an expensive redecoration of Ben Carson’s office. Helen Foster said she was told “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair” after informing …

The New York Daily News reports: An event planner who landed a job in the Trump administration apologized Wednesday for calling a White House correspondent “Miss Piggy” during a Twitter spat. Lynne Patton, who heads a regional Housing and Urban Development office overseeing New York and New Jersey, called April Ryan of the American Urban Radio Networks “Miss Piggy” in …

The New York Daily News reports: A Trump family wedding planner was officially appointed Monday to her new job overseeing federal housing in New York. Lynne Patton, the regional administrator for Housing and Urban Development, has zero experience in housing. She is responsible for distributing billions of taxpayer dollars to public housing in New York and New Jersey. “I have …

The New York Daily News reports: She’s arranged tournaments at Trump golf courses, served as the liaison to the Trump family during his presidential campaign, and even arranged Eric Trump’s wedding. Now President Trump has appointed longtime loyalist Lynne Patton — who has zero housing experience and claims a law degree the school says she never earned — to run …

The Washington Post reports: Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was confirmed Thursday as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, bringing into President Trump’s cabinet a Washington outsider with no prior government experience and a staunchly conservative view of public assistance. Support for Carson’s confirmation came down largely along party lines, highlighting the intense partisan and ideological conflicts …

The Hill reports: Trump Cabinet pick Ben Carson reiterated his belief Thursday that LGBT Americans don’t deserve “extra rights.” During Carson’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) pressed the Housing and Urban Development nominee about whether he would enforce LGBT protections in the public housing sector. “Of course, I would enforce all the laws of the land,” Carson responded. “Of …

Brian Tashman reports at Right Wing Watch: Responding to a statement on Carson’s nomination from incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Robertson said that Obama was unqualified to be president since he “never held a job in the private sector,” “learned his organizing skills from a well-known radical who had a handbook for revolutionaries,” and “did next to nothing” in …

Brian Tashman lays it out at Right Wing Watch: In November, Carson’s spokesman said that the former neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate didn’t want to pursue a role in the Trump administration because he has no relevant experience in managing a federal agency and the “last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the …

Via White House press release: As part of the White House Conference on Aging today, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued guidance to better serve and help avoid discrimination to LGBT Americans seeking HUD-assisted or HUD-insured housing. The guidance will help clarify the Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender …

Via press release from the True Colors Fund: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the True Colors Fund are excited to announce the beginning stages of implementation of the LGBTQ Youth Homelessness Prevention Initiative, a first-of-its-kind effort to identify successful strategies to ensure that no young person is left without a home because of their sexual …

From the Department of Housing and Urban Development: This is the first large-scale, paired-testing study to assess housing discrimination against same-sex couples in metropolitan rental markets via advertisements on the Internet. The research is based on 6,833 e-mail correspondence tests conducted in 50 metropolitan markets across the United States from June through October 2011. For each correspondence test, two e-mails …

Following his appearance before a transgender rights group, last night HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan became to first sitting member of the Obama Cabinet to publicly endorse same-sex marriage. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly: Asked about this summer’s passage of marriage equality in New York, Donovan says, “I was enormously proud to be a New Yorker on the day that …

Last month I called attention to Vicki Barnes, the Tennessee housing official who wrote a letter to HUD denouncing their proposed federal plan to end housing discrimination against LGBT people. In the letter, Barnes compared gay people to murderers and drug dealers. Yesterday local NBC television reported that Barnes has been reprimanded and censured for her letter, but still has …

In January the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed sweeping new rules adding LGBT people as a protected class in all of its programs. That doesn’t sit well with the Catholic Conference of Bigoted Bishops, who have sent HUD a letter strongly opposing the change. “By this, we do not mean that any person should be denied housing. …

In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) invited public comment on proposed new rules banning discrimination against LGBT people in all its programs. That prompted Vicki Barnes, the executive director of Tennessee’s Sweetwater Housing Authority to fire off a letter to HUD in which she compares gay people to murderers, cult members, prostitutes and drug dealers. According …

“The last thing in the world young males in troubled home settings need is to be put in a situation where there is a heightened chance they will be sexually molested by their next door neighbors. These HUD housing projects will become hunting grounds with easy prey for homosexual pedophiles. These young boys have enough obstacles to overcome as it …