Donald Trump's US housing secretary Ben Carson claims poverty is a 'mindset'

The Trump administration’s housing secretary Ben Carson has claimed that poverty is largely “a state of mind”.

Carson, the man responsible for tackling homelessness and providing low-cost housing as secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), said poverty stemmed from parents giving their kids “the wrong mindset”.

“A lot of it has to do with what we teach children,” said Carson, appointed by President Trump to the department earlier this year. “You have to instil into that child the mindset of a winner.”

Congresswoman Nita Lowey, a New York Democrat, tweeted her response to Carson’s comments: “States of mind: Happy. Sad. New York. Not a state of mind: Systemic poverty.”

No child should be without a home, let alone be forced to navigate red tape to prove that they are actually homeless

Housing charities in the US have been trying to get Carson’s department to change how they count the number of homeless people across the nation.

Back in March, Ohio congressman Steve Stivers, a Democrat, introduced a bill to expand HUD’s definition of homelessness. The effort is designed to get more families with children the help they need.

“No child should ever be without a home, let alone be forced to navigate bureaucratic red tape just to prove that they are actually homeless,” said Stivers.

Diane Nilan, founder of the Hear Us Inc. non-profit working with homeless youth said counting people properly would be an important step.

“HUD has a definition of homelessness that excludes about 75 per cent or more of the homeless population as we see it in this country,” she told public radio earlier this month.

HUD figures show 206,286 people in families with children experienced homelessness in 2015. But the US Department of Education figures showed around 1.2 million homeless students across the country experienced homelessness during the 2014-2015 school year.

Photo: Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC