From the August 28, 2019, edition of Sinclair Broadcast Group's America This Week

 

ERIC BOLLING (HOST): The homeless problem in America and some of our largest cities is almost at its breaking point. For tonight’s interview, the secretary of housing and urban development, Dr. Ben Carson, is here. Dr. Carson, thank you very much for taking some time out of your busy schedule. 

SEC. BEN CARSON: My pleasure. 

BOLLING: Dr. Carson, there is video after video being released over the summer of specifically Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland -- the homeless problem seems to be exploding on the West Coast. Can you tell us what’s happening? 

CARSON: Yes. Unfortunately, we have a lot of people whose income is not keeping pace with the escalating prices. And you couple that with the fact that we have all these restrictions, you know, land-use restrictions, zoning issues, and other types of barriers that prevent us from using some of the wonderful technology that actually has been developed in our country. You know, you look at things like manufactured housing. Most people still think about trailers and double-wides, but now the technology has advanced to the point where you can’t tell a manufactured home from a site-built home. And they cost quite a bit less, they accumulate equity at the same rate, and they’re very resilient, particularly when it comes to things like hurricanes, which we’re thinking about right now.  

BOLLING: Dr. Carson, I don’t mean to stop you. I want to get to the solutions, which I know you and I have worked quite a bit extensively -- you’ve been working on it and I’ve covered it quite a bit. But I want to stay on this for a second. Let’s talk about the causes. Why are these things happening? I understand higher housing prices, but does it have anything to do with, you know, liberal mayors allowing people to sleep on streets rather than, you know, kind of pushing them into homeless shelters? 

CARSON: Well, it has to do with all the barriers that have been constructed to prevent us from creating the kind of housing that exists. And it has to do with the fact that we have policies in place that do, in fact, encourage people to sleep on the streets and, you know, we don’t provide for them. 

BOLLING: Sir, all due respect, you say, “We have policies.” Who do you refer to? 

CARSON: The people who run those cities. 

BOLLING: OK. We had noticed you had visited a homeless shelter in San Diego. Can you tell us what you found there? 

CARSON: Well actually, the homeless shelter in San Diego was encouraging. It was more like a barracks -- very large, multiple beds, everybody had their own little space. And there was a way to take care of them, and to realize that some of these people are people who don’t have the mental capacity to take care of themselves and they need extra help. Others have simply chosen a lifestyle, and then others are forced into a lifestyle for financial reasons. But it is possible to take care of them. And one of the things I like to point out is the fact that Tokyo, which has more people than New York City, has virtually no homelessness. 

BOLLING: But, sir, are they allowed to -- are people allowed to sleep on the street in Tokyo? Or Singapore? 

CARSON: No. No, they’re not. No. And that’s the point that I’m getting ready to get to. And that is it has to do with the management that is done in these places. You know, I was in Baltimore a few weeks ago -- saw garbage piled up, stairways broken down, doors boarded up. And then in the same block, I saw lots of young men just sitting on a porch talking to each other. And I was thinking, you know, what if we decided that we wanted to get these young men trained? And they could really learn some skills that would allow them to ascend the ladder of opportunity and to become independent. Those are the kinds of things we need to be thinking about. And, you know, I keep using the generic “we” but, you know, the people who run these cities have a lot to do with what’s going on with the people there, and they can create situations where people can get these jobs. I’ve seen it. 

BOLLING: Is it -- would you consider it -- and I know a lot of people float these monikers and these names and these ideas -- is it racist and/or bigoted to force homeless people off the street so businesses can do business and neighborhoods can be neighborhoods again, rather than having poop patrols in Seattle and people using needles on the sidewalk? Is that racist to push them into homeless shelters? 

CARSON: Oh, well, of course it’s not. You know, we throw around those terms very loosely and to the point where they become meaningless. What we really need to start thinking about is our fellow man and what we can do to help them. Because the fact of the matter is our people are our most precious resource. And for every one that we get out of a dependent situation, it’s a double win. Because No. 1, we don’t have to support them. And No. 2, they become contributing members of society. 

BOLLING: Sir, you and I covered some of this. Now there’s an issue in Los Angeles County, maybe in other cities on the West Coast, where they’re building homeless shelters at something like $700,000 per unit. Tell us very quickly -- I only have about a half a minute or so -- tell us what HUD is doing to combat that high price of homeless shelter. 

CARSON: We’re doing multiple things. You know, the president signed an executive order creating the council to eliminate the barriers to affordable housing. One of the things we did just a couple of weeks ago is the condo rule, which will allow people to buy single condos in a complex that is not FHA-endorsed. That’s a good starting point. You have multiple other things that, you know, are being done to bring down the prices of homes and to remove those barriers. I can’t emphasize enough the fact that the places where you have the largest number of barriers is the places where you have the largest number of homeless people. 

BOLLING: HUD’s trying to bring those walls, those barriers down. We leave right there. Secretary Ben Carson, thank you so much for your time.