The city of Asheville, North Carolina, learned the hard way that the Trump administration is not funding DEI projects.
Asheville was among the communities hit hard by Hurricane Helene last year, which led the Department of Housing and Urban Development to allocate $225 million in Community Development Block Grant funds to help it rebuild, according to a news release posted on HUD’s website.
But Asheville’s initial draft plan for spending that money drew a rebuke from HUD Secretary Scott Turner on Tuesday.
“HUD looks forward to helping thousands of North Carolinians rebuild after Hurricane Helene by directing funding assistance to impacted businesses, non-profit organizations and neighborhoods,” Turner said.
“However, Asheville’s draft action plan incorporated DEI criteria to prioritize some impacted residents over others, which was unacceptable. After HUD informed Asheville that its plan was unsatisfactory and it would not be approved, the city assured us that it was updating its draft action plan to be compliant,” Turner explained.
The draft plan said, as follows: “Within the Small Business Support Program, the City will prioritize assistance for Minority and Women Owned Businesses (MWBE) within the scoring criteria outlined within the policies and procedures.”
“Once again, let me be clear DEI is dead at HUD. We will not provide funding to any program or grantee that does not comply with President Trump’s executive orders,” Turner said.
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said the city has already made the revisions to the language called out by Turner, according to WLOS.
Is Trump administration making progress on eliminating DEI?
“We have modified the action plan to reflect his concerns, and we’ve been told the changes that we’ve made were acceptable,” Manheimer said.
“[Asheville], like many cities, has a program around contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses,” Manheimer said. “Apparently, the reference to that existing program is not something that they want to see in the action plan.”
Manheimer said HUD remains committed to helping Asheville.
“We’re being reassured,” Manheimer said. “They’re very eager and continue to be eager, this administration, to help support the recovery of WNC, including Asheville, and we’re very appreciative of that.”
In an interview, Turner talked about the transition to a DEI-free world, according to the Washington Examiner.
“So 77 million people … voted for this type of change, voted for this type of transition,” he said.
“And oftentimes, you know, transition is hard. Being uncomfortable is hard. But when you’re uncomfortable, like the president stated, we’re going through this time of transition that brings growth,” he said.
“And we are laser-focused not only at HUD, but I know the president is, for the posterity of this nation.”
Turner noted that HUD had found $4 million in DEI put into HUD contracts.
“DEI at HUD is dead. We will serve every American no matter their color, their race, their tongue, their creed because that’s what we’re called to do,” he said.
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