Yahoo Finance Presents: HUD Secretary Ben Carson

On this episode of Yahoo Finance Presents, HUD Secretary Ben Carson joined Yahoo Finance's Sibile Marcellus to discuss the state of affairs in America, including the current coronavirus pandemic, Bank of America's statement regarding the Housing and Urban Development's disparate impact rule, President Trump and Dr. Fauci, as well as racial inequality.

Video Transcript

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SIBILE MARCELLUS: Welcome to "Yahoo Finance Presents." I'm Sibile Marcellus. In this episode, I sit down with the US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson. Secretary Carson, let's start with the looming eviction crisis.

Now, mass unemployment spells trouble for the housing market and also the US economy overall. The CARES Act implemented an eviction moratorium. But that is set to expire next month. What kind of financial support can Americans expect from Washington? And will that eviction moratorium be extended?

BEN CARSON: Well, we've been all over this since the very beginning of the crisis, obviously instituting the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, providing a mechanism for forbearance, providing information on our website HUD.gov/coronavirus for people to know what resources are available. The entire HUD disaster recovery network is still in place to help people. We have housing counselors, over 1,700 approved housing counselors to get people the information that they need.

We have an eviction tool kit which we announced last week, which provides information not only for renters but for landlords and PHAs. And we encourage them to start talking early not at the last minute before you're talking about evictions because there are multiple mechanisms for dealing with things if you deal with it early enough in the process. So all of those things, multiple things are available, including people who are receiving assistance, housing assistance can have their assessment redone in terms of what their income is. And of course, that adjusts the rent that they have to pay.

So there are a lot of mechanisms. But of course, the very best mechanism is getting people back to work and opening the economy because obviously this cannot be a permanent situation. This has to be a brief situation.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Absolutely not. And the racial gap in homeownership between black and white Americans is worse now than it was in the 1960s. Now, Bank of America recently sent a letter to your department telling you not to issue a new rule on disparate impact that would make it harder to prove housing discrimination. Now, why would President Trump want to make it harder for someone who is in fact facing discrimination to be able to prove it?

BEN CARSON: Well, I'm very glad that Bank of America is interested in this issue. And you know, they could do a whole lot to improve the situation for minorities by rejoining the FHA's program for housing. FHA, as you know, is the largest backer of insurance for forward mortgages for minorities or first time homebuyers, doing over a million cases last year. Bank of America did about 2,200.

So if they really want to have an impact, this is what they should be thinking about, rather than criticizing a program that they haven't even seen and don't know anything about. You know, in terms of disparate impact, what people need to understand is it is so wide and so broad the way it is written, all it provides is permanent employment for lawyers.

For instance, let's say Congress decides they want to raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Who is impacted most by that? Low-wage workers, they're the ones who are going to lose their jobs because people don't want to pay them $15 an hour, they might be paying them $12 an hour. Well, who are primarily in those groups? Minorities. Therefore, you've got a disparate impact case right there. I could go on forever talking about the way that works.

We need to have a much better way of doing it. And that's why FHEO is so active. And if anybody knows of discrimination cases in housing, please tell us because we are on them like white on rice.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, you're a neurosurgeon, so tell me about the impact of substandard housing on health. And do you think it has played a role in the spread of the coronavirus?

BEN CARSON: There is no question, when you look at the reason that in the minority community, you have much greater morbidity and mortality is secondary to a number of issues. Yes, we all know that there's more diabetes and hypertension and obesity and asthma and all those comorbidities that vastly increase the mortality. But you have to go another layer below that and ask why do those things exist.

And a lot of that is because the housing is inadequate. It's because people cannot appropriately social distance. It's because people cannot have the kinds of jobs or don't, for the most part, have the kind of jobs that allow them to telework. It's because you have poor food choices in those areas, poor transportation, poor job opportunities, and worst of all, poor education and educational choices.

And education is the ticket. Everybody knows that. It doesn't matter what socio-economic group you're in. You get a good education, and you liberate yourself. And why we don't emphasize that and why we have politicians going around bad mouthing school choice is absolutely beyond me.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, you're on President Trump's coronavirus task force. And instead of slowing the spread, we're seeing coronavirus cases spike throughout the country. For instance, in Florida hospitals are seeing that their intensive care units are overwhelmed. So has the coronavirus task force just given up? Are you still working on slowing the spread? And are you still meeting on a daily basis?

BEN CARSON: We're not meeting on a daily basis anymore. But we certainly haven't given up. What we do know is that some of the things that were being done a couple of months ago were very effective, the handwashing, the social distancing, the mask wearing. And when those things began to be alleviated, I think a lot of people in our country did not take it seriously that they were supposed to continue to maintain those things.

If you look at the videos, for instance, in Europe, it's very hard to find anybody without a mask on. Here, they're abundant. We have got to begin to emphasize the seriousness of the spread because we can't obviously shut down again, when you look at the damage that was done the first time. You do that again and you completely delay the financial infrastructure and a lot more people will die than have ever died from the virus. So obviously, we've got to be a little wiser. And we've got to learn how to use that information in an intelligent and logical way.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Are right Dr. Fauci and President Trump still on speaking terms? Because President Trump has been very vocal in his criticism of Dr. Fauci.

BEN CARSON: I don't know. I see the president sometimes. I see Dr. Fauci sometimes. I don't know.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Do you think Dr. Fauci has been effective as the nation's top infectious disease expert?

BEN CARSON: I think everybody has been working extremely hard to try to alleviate this problem, including Dr. Fauci.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: And do you think President Trump's response so far has been effective in helping to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, given that cases are surging right now?

BEN CARSON: The president has been very engaged, has worked hard, and is going to work even harder, because I think all of us recognize that the major failure in this situation in our country is that people are not taking it seriously, and particularly young people are not taking it seriously, because they know that their likelihood of dying is very small.

But what I've been encouraging people to do is just assume that you're an asymptomatic carrier, so that anytime you're around an elderly person or a vulnerable person, do those things that you would do if you thought you had the disease. And that will really get a handle on it very quickly. That's what we need to be emphasizing.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: After the death of George Floyd and the protests around the nation, President Trump, there were some reports that said he would address the nation on the issue of race. But he hasn't so far. Why is that? And do you think that would help his re-election chances?

BEN CARSON: Well, actually, when he was at the launch, he did address it significantly. Most people don't know that. And he said things about it in subsequent speeches as well. So I would not say that he hasn't addressed it. But has he given a long, in-depth speech where that was the only topic?

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Exactly, like a primetime speech to the nation only on this topic?

BEN CARSON: I'm not aware of him having done that. But really, what we as a nation have to do when it comes to the racial issues is recognize that we all have a responsibility. It's not all on the president. We all have a sphere of influence. And we decide what happens in that sphere of influence, how we are going to react, how we are going to treat other people, how are we going to treat our fellow man. We decide that. The president doesn't decide that.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: What would you like to hear from President Trump directly as an African-American man?

BEN CARSON: Well, you know, I've talked to him. And you know, he has acknowledged that there are some problems in law enforcement, no question about that, just like there are problems with doctors and there are problems with firemen. There are even problems with journalists everywhere. We don't characterize the entire profession on the basis of what a few people do. And it's totally unfair for us to be doing that with the police.

At the same time, the president has put forth a number of policies which I think are very, very useful in terms of justice reform. And we should be talking about those. And we should be laying blame where it should be. And that is on Congress for not really taking this up in a serious way.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, let's talk about the economic impact of Confederate symbols. So according to the Economic Policy Institute, black workers earn 21% less than their white counterparts. But when they live in an area where there are Confederate street signs named after Confederate generals, then they face an additional 3% wage penalty. So President Trump has criticized NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag. Do you agree with him on that?

BEN CARSON: Well, I think we need to stand back and recognize that we already have mechanisms in place for dealing with statues and symbols. There are legal mechanisms whereby people can put these things on the ballot. They can vote. And if they decide that this is something that they don't like that's offensive to them, it can be taken down. But to simply go about as marauders and the person with the biggest stick gets to rule, that's not very helpful for anybody.

You know, as far as the Confederate flag is concerned, you know, obviously I don't particularly like seeing that. If people want to fly that on their private property, you know, they're welcome to do that. But if it's in a public place, again, we have mechanisms for dealing like that, just like they did in South Carolina. And that's what we should do. But it would also be, I think, instructional to educate people about the Confederate flag, the people who created the Confederate flag, and what they said it represented. And I think a lot of people who fly it would probably take it down on their own if they knew that.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: You said that you were actually trying to get President Trump in an interview to reconsider his stance when it comes to NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Have you been successful in that? Because President Trump has criticized the NFL for reversing their stance.

BEN CARSON: Well, he hasn't talked a lot about it, so that's progress. We'll keep moving in the right direction. But at the same time, as you noted, I said the NFL players assume that everybody knows why they're kneeling, that to try and bring attention to police brutality. That's not true. Everybody doesn't know that.

And a lot of people think that they're being disrespectful to the flag, disrespectful to law enforcement, disrespectful to the military. And you know, if they're going to do something, they really need to make sure that people fully understand it. Just because they think somebody understands it doesn't mean that people understand it. And I take some comfort in the fact that a lot of attention has been brought to that issue now.

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, that's for sure, a lot of attention as the nation continues to deal with the issues of race and social justice. US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson, it was great to have you on. Thanks so much.

BEN CARSON: Thank you.