In an open letter to Idaho Senator Michael Crapo, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a ranking member of the committee, professors, experts, and academics across the U.S. are requesting that Crapo and Brown decline to confirm Dr. Carson’s appointment to the federal government’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency.

As The Architect’s Newspaper reported, President-elect Donald Trump tapped Dr. Carson for the position on December 5, despite misgivings from some that Dr. Carson has no expertise in housing. The letter reinforces this fact and quotes Dr. Carson’s friend, Armstrong Williams, who “has acknowledged that Dr. Carson: ‘has no government experience. He’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.'” The letter also discusses the time Dr. Carson dismissed fair housing as “a mandated social-engineering scheme” and other comments he has made with regard to poverty, affordable and fair housing, and the government’s role in those sectors. 

The letter ends, “To conclude, we cannot imagine that a person with Dr. Carson’s views about fair housing, the role of government, and the roots of poverty could possibly be an advocate for the very programs for which HUD is responsible. We believe that the appointment of Dr. Carson would severely jeopardize the well-being of the nearly 5 million households across the country for whom HUD is their only means of securing housing. We strongly urge you to decline to confirm Dr. Ben Carson as HUD Secretary.”

To read the entirety of the letter and to sign your name to it, click here.