It's Not Necessarily a Bad Idea to Have a Health Expert Lead HUD, Though

Donald Trump’s choice to have his one-time rival Ben Carson head the Department of Housing and Urban Development has triggered a lot of head-scratching. Carson’s dilly-dallying* on whether to accept the job drove many into full excoriation disorder, wondering why a retired neurosurgeon with no housing policy experience was even being considered. CityLab’s Kriston Capps assembled a comprehensive set of opinions from housing experts on why having Carson lead HUD would be a huge mistake—not least of which is the doctor’s allergy to fair housing principles.

But if the critique is that a medical professional is unfit for the HUD position, then that doesn’t square with the research, which is increasingly convinced that housing is indeed a health issue. Dr. Megan Sandel, the former medical director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, calls housing a “vaccine” for protecting children against societal ills. And there’s global agreement on this. The World Health Organization states in its international guidelines for “healthy housing” that: