Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Monday said there are "serious" numbers coming out of the president's Opportunity Zone initiative after the White House Council of Economic Advisors released an analysis showing over the past 2 years, $75 billion in private capital has gone into disadvantaged communities nationwide.
"This $75 billion in two years is remarkable because, as the program was put together, Secretary [Steven] Mnuchin and his group predicted $100 billion over 10 years," Carson said on Fox Business' "Mornings With Maria." "We're talking $75 billion in just two years. The Council on Economic Advisors also predicts that will lift 1 million people out of poverty."
He added, when one looks at opportunity zones versus non-opportunity zones, there had been a 29% increase in economic investment through the areas that are benefitting from the program.
The zones also increase property values, Carson said, because "they go up 1.1% just with the announcement of you being in an Opportunity Zone, and it's predicted that 11% decrease in poverty in Opportunity Zones, so these things are actually working extremely well," he said.
Such zones are all over the country, and their success can be viewed online, Carson said.
Scott Turner, the director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" he hopes Americans will be appreciative the opportunity zones are working out so well, and said education is also key for opening opportunities for the country's young people.
"We don't want our children across America, throughout America, every ethnicity, every socioeconomic background to be in prison because of their zip code," Turner said. "We want them to be released and have the opportunity to be taught by the best teachers – be it virtual learning and distance learning and in class – but to have parents give them a choice."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.