The Daily Signal - Exclusive Interview: Ben Carson Announces Tool to Help Homeless, Needy

Episode Date: January 14, 2021

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to announce a powerful new tool to help the homeless and needy in communities across America. The "Find Shelter" tool is designed to connect needy families and individuals with housing, food, clothing, medical, and other local resources, Carson explains. He says the web service will help to meet the practical needs of many Americans as the pandemic continues. We also cover these stories: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls President Donald Trump a "clear and present danger" before the House’s vote to impeach him again. Trump releases a statement calling for peace in the nation. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announces plans to end the city's affiliation with Trump businesses.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, January 14th. I'm Rachel Del Judas. And I'm Virginia Allen. Today, Rob Blewey talks with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson, for an exclusive interview about the department's new resource called Find Shelter. The tool is designed to help families and individuals in immediate need of food, shelter, shelter, clothing, and other resources, as homeless rates continue to rise during the pandemic. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe.

Now on to our top news. On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi called President Donald Trump a clear and present danger before the House's impeachment vote. Here's what Pelosi had to say in remarks on the House floor. We know that we faced enemies of the Constitution. We know we experienced the insurrection that violated the sanctity of the people's cabinet. and attempted to overturn the duly recorded will of the American people. And we know that the President of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country.

He must go. He is a clear and present danger to the nation that we all love. Since the presidential election in November, an election the president lost, He has repeatedly lied about the outcome, so self-serving doubt about democracy and unconstitutionally sought to influence state officials to repeal reality. And then came that day of fire we all experienced. The president must be impeached, and I believe the president must be convicted by the Senate a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be. say from this man who was so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke on the floor of the House Wednesday ahead of a vote to impeach President Donald Trump after last week's violent attack on the Capitol. McCarthy strongly condemned the violence and said that the president should take responsibility for the role he played in last week's events. But McCarthy urged his colleagues not to vote for impeachment, arguing that doing so would only further harm the nation, per the Hill. I believe impeaching the president in such a short time frame would be a mistake. No investigations have been completed, no hearings have been held. What's more, the Senate has confirmed that no trial will begin until after President-elect Biden is sworn in.

But here is what a vote to impeach would do. A vote to impeach would further divide this nation. A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division. Most Americans want neither inaction nor retribution. They want durable bipartisan justice. That path is still available, but is not the path we are on today. McCarthy continued to stress the importance of unity at this moment in the country, calling it a necessity. It does not matter if you are liberal, moderate, or conservative.

All of us must resist the temptation of further polarization. Instead, we must unite once again as Americans. I understand for some this call for unity may ring hollow. But times like these are when we must remember who we all. as Americans and what we as a nation stand for. And as history shows, unity is not an option. It's a necessity. Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio is calling on House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming to step down from her position due to her support of impeaching President Trump.

In the Senate, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is also speaking out against impeachment. On Wednesday, Graham tweeted, to my Republican colleagues who legitimized the Senate, process. You are doing great damage not only to the country, the future of the presidency, but also to the party. The millions who have supported President Trump and his agenda should not be demonized because of the despicable actions of a seditious mob. Graham added that the individuals who participated in the storming of the Capitol should be met with a full force of the law. They should and will be held accountable. On Wednesday, President Trump released a statement calling for peace in the nation. In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be no violence,

no lawbreaking, and no vandalism of any kind, the president said, per Fox News. Trump added that violence and lawbreaking is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on all Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank you. A Trump advisor told Fox News that the White House is going to try to post the president's statement on all of his social media accounts, and they invite big tech companies to help them encourage peace leading into next week's inauguration. This is a critical time in our nation's history, and surely we can all come together to deliver this important message and not continue to play partisan politics, the president's advisor told Fox News. Following the breaching of the Capitol last Wednesday that left five people dead,

New York City is ending affiliation with Trump businesses. On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, New York City doesn't do business with insurrectionists. We're taking steps to terminate agreements with the Trump organization to operate the Central Park Carousel, Woolman and Lasker skating rinks, and the Ferry Point Golf Course. Now stay tuned for Rob Louis' conversation with Secretary Ben Carson as they discuss the new tool, Find Shelter,

designed to help those in need during these challenging times. Conservative women. Conservative feminists. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen, and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories in interviews that are a particular interest to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcast. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Secretary Ben Carson, who has led the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the past four years. Secretary Carson,

thanks so much for joining us today. It's an absolute pleasure. Thank you. Well, it's not your first time speaking with the Daily Signal, and we appreciate all of the contributions you've made over the past four years. Your department has certainly been busy on a number of fronts, and I'd like to start today with a new resource for Americans that you've developed called Find Shelter. Can you tell us about it? Yeah, we're very excited about this particular tool. basically a lot of times you'll see people out on the street sometimes they're begging sometimes they have signs and they look to shovel and nevertheless they're within a few blocks of a place where they can get help where they can get a bed where they can get food where they can get health services clothing

all of these things are available but they don't know about it they don't know where it is and no one else does either. So what we've done is created an app that you can put on your phone so that you can just scan the QR codes that are located in various public places that say find shelter, or you can just take your phone and go to hud.gov slash find shelter. And it will give you a list of all the places and not only provide you a list of where they are, but it also provides you the telephone numbers, the website, directions for how to get there, all the things that you would need to be able to take advantage of this situation. So you no longer have to feel helpless or you say, I want to help that person, but probably just take it and spend it on drugs and you're conflicted. Now you've

out of the way that you can definitely provide them some help. Well, thank you for that explanation. Again, as you mentioned, find shelter is available at hud.gov slash find shelter. I've had a chance to look at it myself, and it's a great tool. It allows visitors to HUD's website to search for places that, as you said, provide shelter or help with needs like clothing, health care, and food. How do you hope that this will help relieve the homelessness problem that we have in America and others who may be in need?

Well, many of the shelters that you go to actually have people there who are trained professionals in terms of how to get people off the street and how to get them into some type of a help program and aim them toward at some point becoming self-sufficient. But they'll never get that if they just wander around on the streets, which so many people do. and a lot of them also are associated with health clinics and with addiction centers and with mental health facilities. You know, we are a very compassionate country, and we have a lot of facilities that are available to people, but it's not particularly helpful if they don't know how to get to them. That is so true. I, you know, I plugged in my own zip code and a few other zip codes, and it is a comprehensive list that you have assembled.

So thank you for doing that. There's a map which makes it quite helpful to see where they are in your community. What was your inspiration for embarking on this project? Well, you know, I was driving down a route that I usually drive to to go to the church. And there was this homeless man with a sign. And I kept seeing him in different places. and I started thinking there must be a good way to help this fellow

and we just started talking about it and saying you know what is the best thing that you could do for this guy and as we as we discussed to them with the various possibilities it was putting him in contact with the resources in the areas where he keeps showing up and you know

the other thing about a lot of the shelters is they are frequently associated with various nonprofits or faith-based organizations, which can actually develop a relationship with these individuals. And it's that relationship along with the caring that can very often make the critical difference in a person's life. A federal government, you know, admittedly gives out a lot of money and has programs. They don't develop relationships with people. And that's why some of the results are not as good as we'd like to see. Well, thank you for speaking to that.

Those community organizations are doing just tremendous work all over our great country. I understand you're also making available downloadable, printable posters and palm cards. What are some of the ways that you hope Americans can help spread the word about fine shelter and make sure that this resource is utilized? Well, I hope that people will, in fact, go to our website. read about the program, familiarize themselves, but it familiarize themselves with the aides that are in their own neighborhood. But yes, in fact,

download some of the posters and put them up in the places where you see homeless people. And put them up around libraries and public housing authorities and police stations and fire stations, where people can easily see them and then access that. also carry around some of the palm cards in your pocket instead of giving them a dollar, give them a poem card, give them something that can really help them. Secretary Carson, the coronavirus pandemic has clearly had an impact on a great many Americans. What are some of the steps that you've taken at HUD, and do you anticipate the fine shelter

tool helping those who are facing hard times because of the pandemic? Absolutely. It will be very helpful to those individuals. You know, we have done a number of things in terms of working with the landlords and working with forbearance so that, you know, they can still manage to survive because a lot of times they don't think about the landlords. Their business is their livelihood. And if everybody is not paying, obviously they go out of business. They go out of business.

then a bunch of people wind up on the street. So, you know, there's a domino effect there, and that's why we have been particularly concerned not only with the renters themselves, but also with the landlord and the apartment providers. You know, we have a toolbox of things that are available to whoever is in charge of a multifamily. that gives them a number of resources that are available to them.

That's really, really great to hear. And during this pandemic, you have personally championed the idea of neighbors helping neighbors to help those Americans who may be more vulnerable. Do you have a favorite example or some of the ways that you have been inspired by what is happening in our communities during the pandemic? Yeah, well, I know one of the envisions in Kentucky. had a food van and they started going around and distributing food, particularly to the elderly who are sheltering in place and made it possible for them to continue to have a reasonable

life without worrying about exposing themselves. You know, it's such an important concept because, you know, a lot of communities have migrated to just let's lock everything down and close all the businesses, and somehow that's going to help us. It doesn't really help, and we can see that from the statistics. But what does help is if we look at the vulnerable people in our society, those who are over the age of 65 and those with comorbidities, and we teach each family and each social group who the vulnerable,

people are, and what do you do to make sure that you don't infect them? You can go to work, you can go to school, but what do you need to do to protect the vulnerable people? That would be a much more intelligent way to do things. Well, and of course, we had you in our prayers, Secretary Carson, as you battled the virus yourself. And so we're glad to have you back, healthy, in the position you are to make sure that you're able to help others. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I would just caution everybody, you know, this is a serious disease.

Don't take it lightly. Be careful in the way that you do things. But it doesn't mean that you have to shut your life down. You and I have talked in the past about some of the trends we've seen in America on homelessness. Do we know yet how coronavirus has impacted the pandemic? some of those numbers? Well, because, you know, we have been aggressive with forbearance and moratoriums and foreclosures and there's things like that.

And, of course, we disseminated $12 billion worth of CARES fund, a large portion of that going to make sure that people were able to stay in their homes. But that can't last forever. and that's what we have got to get people to understand. You know, the economy was exceedingly strong and has been able to withstand, you know, a real belly punch, but that's not going to go on forever. And we have to begin to think what we're going to do

because the coronavirus pandemic will have its effect, and it is going to have a bit, but that effect can be mitigated if we think ahead. We don't wait for the crisis to hit. And I will give Congress some credit in terms of making funding available through the various CARES Act because if you destroy the economic infrastructure,

a lot more people will die of poverty than would ever die. the virus itself. We have to think about that, but we also have to divorce politics from it and really start thinking about the survival of our citizens. What do we have to do

in order to get an economy that is thriving once again so that they can make a living so that they can begin to enjoy the American dream and not be just worried about barely surviving. Well, and even outside of coronavirus,

I know that that's been a passion for you as Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development. What are some of the accomplishments that you are most proud of at HUD over these past four years? Well, there's a whole lot of them. First of all, I said, please go to HUD.gov and look on the accomplishment page. It's actually more than the pages, a lot of stuff. But some of the key things we brought financial stability to the organization. We used to always hear these stories about, you know, fifth,

mismanagement at HUD. You don't hear those anymore. So we brought in a terrific CFO. That office had been neglected for almost a decade and had an integrity task force which crossed all the silos and brought real financial control. It's one of the reasons that we were able to withstand this pandemic because our mutual mortgage insurance fund was so strong. You know, a lot of people have been saying, you guys have accumulated a lot of money. Let's cut all the premiums. If we had done that, we wouldn't have had the resources that we needed when that time came. You always have to be ready for the rainy day.

So that was critical. We've been able to put up almost 100 Invention centers, and they're having a powerful impact in the communities where they are bringing multiple federal agencies in line with state and local agencies all under one roof so that people can access those things and begin to climb the ladder of success. That young woman, that young mother who has three children and never finished high school can find out how to get child care, how to get her GED, how to get more advanced training so that she can become self-sufficient and teach that to our children so we can begin to break

those cycles of dependency. working as the chairman of the Opportunity and Revolization Council. The opportunities of them have spread all over the place, have lifted hundreds of thousands of projecting a million people soon out of poverty, providing for almost 500,000 jobs, creating situations where people are getting the kind of training, which will lift them out of poverty, which will give them independence. Those are things that make them very mobile.

Those kinds of things are incredibly important. And, you know, it goes on and on. But, you know, our major thing has been self-sufficiency as opposed to dependency, because that makes all the difference in the world, a person's life. And, you know, we have frequently taken a more paternalistic attitude, pat people on the head. There, there are your poor little thing. I'm going to take care of all your needs. that's not really helping people.

You know, that's making people dependent. What we need to be doing is giving them the mechanism, showing them the mechanism, helping them to climb those ladders of opportunity. And that is much more fulfilling and satisfying for them and for society at large. Well, that is true, Secretary Carson, and thank you for going through some of those accomplishments.

Those are certainly notable things. And as you said, a much more detailed list available on HUD's website. Let me just mention one other thing, and that is that we have just an incredible staff. I always say we have the ugliest building, but the best people. And just to show you how different they are from so many bureaucracies, a group of young people came to us almost two years ago now, talking about what was happening to young people who were aging out of foster care, a quarter of them ending up homeless, even a larger number, inadequately housed.

And our staff was able to put together in four months a program called Foster Use to Independence or FYI to give these young people not only a voucher so that they could have a home, but the wraparound services, the kinds of things that you're doing. family generally provides. Can you imagine being 18 years old and all of a sudden being on your own with no family and no support? We're providing those kinds of things. And it's been a tremendous success. And the program is rapidly growing. We hope eventually there will be no kids that are aging out of foster care that don't have support. Well, that would be a great news, Secretary Carson. Thank you for sharing that story with us. You know, so many of our listeners

that the Daily Signal have been inspired by your message, even prior to becoming Secretary of HUD. What are your plans next? Anything you'd like to share with our audience about what's in your future? Well, I will remain involved in the public sphere, working on self-sufficiently, but also working on what I perceive

as something that has, great potential to destroy our nation, and that's the hatred and the vision that is going on. And, you know, we need to learn how to compromise with each other. When you live in a diverse society, you know, taking the my way or the highway attitude doesn't work. And also, you know, the eye for an eye attitude. You did this to me. I'm doing it to you. You know, eye for an eye attitude leads the blindness by everybody in the long run.

And we just need to rethink who we are as a nation, rethink about the incredible importance of the United States of America to the world. Before the United States was on the scene, you had all these despotic leaders who would just trample on anybody who was weaker than them. And don't think that the world won't go back to that if the United States fate. So, you know, we have obligations both to ourselves, our own people, and to the people of the world. And those are the kinds of things we're going to be working on. Well, I'm grateful to hear that.

And thank you for leaving us with those words of wisdom today. I hope our listeners will take that to heart and follow that path. We certainly appreciate you sharing that with us. Secretary Ben Carson, thank you for your leadership of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. and telling us about the new tool that your department has created called Find Shelter. Again, you can find it at HUD.gov slash Find Shelter. Thank you. It's been a pleasure being with you. And that'll do it for today's episode.

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