ben carson dining room set
thank you very much. i'm so glad that you are able to join us athud here today. the ugliest building in washington, d.c. withthe best people working in it. so it all evens out. i'm very happy that everybody is interestedin learning more about the rad conversion process. i think it's one of the most spectacular programsthat has ever been hatched here. we all know that public housing is very largecapital backlog year after year with more and more things happening, and it puts residentsreally at risk of losing their housing, and
it's due to disrepair and thousands are losteach year. you know, this is really unsustainable, andaffordable housing is a vital resource, and it's really growing in its importance to ournation every single day, and the cost of housing is out of reach for many. single day. the cost of housing is out muchreach for many today, including seniors and one in every fourhouseholds who qualify for federal assistance are able toreceive it. simply due to supply and demandissues.
it's also important and possiblefor families to achieve self-sufficiency if they don'thave a safe place to live. this is why preservation throughthe rad program is so vitally important. offers a chance to preserve andtransform affordable housing by leveraging private investmentsto make this housing not only more attractive but much morelivable as well. safe homes that are created byrad can act as a springboard for residents to achieve theiramerican dream.
rather than places that containpeople. now, since the rad programstarted in 2012, over 92,000 public housing units across thecountry have been converted. generating more than $5.4billion worth of improvements. and that breaks down to about$60,000 per unit. now, it would have takenparticipating housing authorities about 46 years toaccumulate the same level of capital funding needed tocomplete that amount of construction.
so it gives you some idea of thetremendous impact of the program. now, we estimate that thisactivity has stimulated over 107,000 jobs. many of which are going to lowincome americans. and i was recently at a placewhere low income americans were revitalizing an entire complexand had a chance to talk to them and their self-esteem wasthrough the roof and they were acquiring skills that wouldallow them to escape assistance
all together. in some cases, residents at theproperties are working at the very site that will be theirhome. bearing direct witness to thefruits of their labor. now, this is an incrediblyexciting time for the rad this year, congress has againdemonstrated that it is recognizing also what we'rerecognizing. by raising the cap from $225,000to $455,000 units. that's a big increase.
we hope it's only a stop alongthe way to getting rid of the cap all together. this means that h.u.d. will beable to make awards to public housing authorities with over100,000 units on a waiting list and that we have space for evenmore. we believe that h.u.d. is aproven cost effective program. and that it's time to reallyembrace it from top to the bottom of government, at thefederal level, state level, and
local level. so i hope you enjoy the trainingover the next couple of days. you're in great hands. from the staff, from the officeof recapitalization which runs the rad program. and i'm not just saying thatbecause i'm biassed. you know, last year, the radprogram was recognized as one of the finalists for the federalgovernment's version of the oscars which is called thesamies.
and that is a tremendousrecognition. [applause]they're great examples of how h.u.d. can be innovative andresponsive. that's what we're going to haveto do. we're going to have to think outof the box. we're going to have to respondto the people, to all the stakeholders, to all theconstituents and this is a program that i think people canreally understand.
so thank you for your time thismorning. i look forward to visiting someof your sites. i've been excited as i'vetraveled around the country and seen some of the sites that havebeen converted and began to recognize that, you know, weactually can solve the problems of affordable housing. we actually have the capabilityof doing it. it exists within us. you know, and all i think wehave to do is recognize that,
you know, we're not each other'senemies but we do have the ability to recognize problems. and if we focus our energiestogether on those problems, and we use data, we use actualevidence to create our policies and we get behind those thingsthat actually work, i think a lot of the problems that we seewill fade quickly into the rearview mirror. thank you very much for beinghere.