Ben Carson betrays Baltimore
U.S.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson toured the home of Maggie
and Vincent Perracchio in Willington on Monday with U.S. Senator Chris
Murphy, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Representative Joe
Courtney and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman to see first hand the crumbling
condition of the home's foundation.
Jeanette Snowden
Ben Carson grew
up in public housing, received government assistance, and devoted his career as
a surgeon to the people of Baltimore. Now the agency he runs, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is proposing divisive cuts from the top
down on the people who need help the most.
Through the “Making Affordable Housing Work Act
of 2018,” Dr. Carson wants to kick the ladder out from underneath millions of
seniors, persons with disabilities and working moms. The Trump-Carson HUD Bill will triple minimum
monthly rents (from $50 to $150) on residents who have little or no income. It
will require residents to pay a greater percentage of their incomes toward rent
and end deductions of large medical expenses before calculating rents. These
cuts will increase evictions and homelessness at the same time that the Salvation
Army’s Booth House, one of the Baltimore’s largest shelters for families with
children, is closing.
I am one of the many residents of Baltimore who
rely on HUD-assisted housing to get by. I am putting my experience to work to
create grassroots change, and I am writing to share why these cuts are a big
step in the wrong direction.
I have worked most of my life on my feet in
restaurants and for caterers at the Baltimore City Convention Center. The work
was hard, but I was proud that I was able to help support myself and my family.
After I was diagnosed with a medical condition in my feet that reduces my
mobility, it became more difficult for me to move around and keep working. I
was wrongly denied disability benefits. I am looking for a job, but who will
hire a 61 year old who has no college degree and cannot walk that well?
Dr. Carson suggests that increasing my rent will
make me self-sufficient — that it will finally push me to get a living wage job
that does not exist for someone like me.
The stress of a potential rent hike for me and
for my neighbors who rely on HUD assistance causes me to lose sleep. As it is,
I get by on food stamps and meal
programs. I’m also angry. Donald Trump just passed a giant tax cut that goes
mostly to wealthy people and corporations. And you want me to foot the bill?
It is my experience that when you help people
meet their basic needs, most respond by working to better their lives and the
lives of their children. My own son just graduated from Coppin State University
with a bachelor’s degree, and he is giving back to the community working in
youth development and education. I couldn’t be more proud.
We should be investing to help people meet basic
needs like housing so that they can focus on finding a steady job or going to
school. I urge Dr. Carson to come meet with public housing residents. What if
it was his mother who was a disabled senior citizen in public housing? Would he
ask her to pay more to become “self-sufficient”?
While we protest appalling proposals from
Washington, there is still hope at the local level. I am a member of the Baltimore Housing Roundtable that is
working day in and day out to realize a human right to housing. Councilman
John Bullock and Council President Jack Young have responded to the challenge
of the Trump administration and proposed the “Fund the Trust Act” (Council bill
18-0221) that will provide $20 million per year to the city’s Affordable
Housing Trust Fund. Over 10 years, this legislation could help
develop or preserve over 4,000 affordable homes, prevent over 4,600 evictions,
rehabilitate 1,600 vacants and employ over 8,500 Baltimore residents. At the
Housing Roundtable and Housing For All, we are pushing our leaders to act now
on the bill to protect city residents from this administration’s callous and
inhumane policies. This is what leadership and a grassroots plan for action
looks like.
Also, our friends at Indivisible Baltimorehave
launched a campaign to encourage our congressional leaders to denounce the
Trump-Carson HUD bill and the equally terrible bill by Rep. Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican. I urge
Maryland residents to call their representatives, senators and council people
about these important bills.
Dr. Carson may have forgotten the people of
Baltimore, but we will not forget. All people deserve a place to call home.
Jeanette Snowden lives in Baltimore and is a member of the
Baltimore Housing Roundtable. Copyright ©
2018, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication | Place an Ad
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
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