NEW: Ben Carson's HUD awarded promotions, raises to at least five political operatives with no housing policy experience within their first months on the job, resulting in salaries between $98,000 and $155,000. Three of them do not have bachelor’s degrees.
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All 5 had worked on Donald Trump’s or Ben Carson’s presidential campaigns and are among at least 24 people without evident housing policy experience who were appointed to the best-paying political positions at HUD.
Our review of HUD and OPM records show that about a third of the 70 best-paid HUD political appointees under Trump don't have any housing policy experience. Under the Obama administration, seven appointees — 11 percent — appeared to have lacked housing-related backgrounds.
"This administration is different, because the people coming in really don’t know housing at all,” said Ron Ashford, a former HUD director who retired after 22 years at the agency. “As a result, they’re pursuing initiatives that aren’t grounded in reality.”
The limited experience at the upper reaches of the agency — Secretary Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, has no prior housing, executive or government background — injected confusion into the rollout o/policy initiatives & brought delays 2 even routine functions, acc 2 career staff.
Among appointees w/o housing policy experience: a former event manager turned senior HUD adviser making $131,767 after a 23 percent raise & a former real estate agent whose new job is to advise a HUD administrator, a longtime Trump family aide who also lacks housing credentials.
