Clarence Carter

Clarence H. Carter is the former director of the Office of Family Assistance and the acting director of the Office of Community Services at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families during the Trump Administration.  Carter came from the Institute for the Improvement of the Human Condition, which he founded. At that organization, he worked with state and local safety net agencies to meet the emergency needs of socially and economically vulnerable citizens.

Carter served as the Director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, in addition to other state, federal and local human services management positions.

During his service in the Bush Administration, he managed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and served as the Director of the Office of Community Services. As Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Social Services, his program was instrumental in growing the capacity of its citizens. In his first five years, more than 25,000 public assistance recipients obtained gainful employment, earning in excess of $200 million. During his tenure, Virginia’s public assistance rolls were reduced by more than half, from an all-time high of 74,000 families to a 30-year low of 31,000.

On the local level, while serving as the Director of the Washington, D.C., Department of Human Services, Carter led the design and operation of an initiative to house more than 1,000 homeless residents. It was this effort that transformed the District’s shelter-based homeless system to one based in permanent supportive housing as the primary mechanism to reduce homelessness.