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This story was originally published by ProPublica. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is considering taking a first step to using cryptocurrency, according to a meeting recording and other materials reviewed by ProPublica and three officials familiar with the matter. Two officials told ProPublica they believe the initiative may be a trial run for the use of crypto across the federal government. The discussions have sparked concern among some at the department, especially about the prospect of paying recipients of major federal grants in cryptocurrency, an uninsured digital asset associated with financial speculation, dramatic swings in value and transnational crime. The focus of the discussions so far has been experimenting with using the underlying technology that makes crypto possible the blockchain to monitor HUD grants. Blockchain advocates argue that the technology is valuable on its own for such purposes. But the primary use of blockchain, according to experts, is for crypto transactions. Its just introducing another unregulated security into the housing market as though 2008, 2009 didnt happen, one HUD staffer said, referring to the subprime mortgage crisis. I dont see any way this will help anything. I see a lot of ways this could hurt, said the official, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The HUD discussions have covered the potential use of a stablecoin, a form of crypto that is pegged to another asset to avoid wild swings in value, although such swings have happened in the past. The blockchain idea is being pushed, a HUD official told colleagues, by Irving Dennis. Dennis, the agencys new principal deputy chief financial officer, is a former partner at the global consulting giant EY, also commonly known by its original name, Ernst & Young. EY itself is involved in the proposal as well: An executive of the firm discussed the idea with HUD officials last month. The crypto industry has found an ally in President Donald Trump, whose administration has tapped industryboosters to lead federal agencies, backed off investigations into crypto firms and created a strategic Bitcoin reserve. (Bitcoin plunged $5,000 within an hour of the news of the reserves opening on Thursday.) Trump himself has significant financial interests in crypto. On Friday, the White House is scheduled to host a crypto summit with leading figures from the industry. The proposal at HUD indicates a new way that the administration may seek to bolster the industry: by incorporating blockchain and possibly cryptocurrency into the routine spending and accounting practices of federal agencies. Its a move that would align with the apparent desire of Trump adviser Elon Musk to use the blockchain to monitor federal spending. Dennis and HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett both denied the accounts of their colleagues. The department has no plans for blockchain or stablecoin, Lovett said. Education is not implementation. Robert Judson, the EY executive involved in the conversations, confirmed that they took place. We as a firm were having discussions with select individuals at that agency, he said when reached by phone. Judson told ProPublica he would seek EYs approval for a full interview, then didnt call back. The White House, EY and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. HUD officials held at least two meetings about the blockchain proposal last month. A list of attendees to the first meeting included staffers from the offices of the CFO and Community Planning and Development. CPD administers billions of dollars in grants that support low- and moderate-income people, including funding to develop affordable housing, run homeless shelters, support disaster recovery, relocate domestic violence survivors and build parks, sewers and community centers. It was the CFOs office that called for the meeting, one person told ProPublica. Also listed as a meeting attendee was Judson from EY. For years Judson has advocated for the blockchain, a digital ledger of sorts that creates an immutable record of transactions saved across multiple computers. Boosters of the technology cast it as a way to cut middlemen such as banks and credit card companies out of financial transactions and make those transactions more transparent and secure. Judson has written that the blockchain can help organizations prevent money from being siphoned off for unintended purposes. As digital assets such as stable coins or digital currencies take hold, more powerful applications will emerge for integrated value exchange, he wrote. Dennis, who served as HUD CFO in the first Trump administration, also wrote, in a 2021 book, that the agency should use technology such as blockchain, robotics, and next-generation financial management systems. Stablecoins are backed by reserves including traditional currency, commodities and Treasury securities. That is supposed to ensure that their value unlike that of, say, Bitcoin doesnt fluctuate. However, on several high-profile occasions, the value of stablecoins has done just that. At the HUD meeting, attendees discussed a proof of concept project in which CPD would begin to track the funding going to a single CPD grant recipient and possibly subrecipients on the blockchain. The need for the project was not well articulated, one attendee later wrote in meeting notes. Following the meeting, a HUD official wrote and circulated a memo within the agency panning the idea. Without exaggeration, every imaginable implementation of this at HUD appears dangerous and inefficient, the memo reads. HUD has no difficulty tracking grant spending, the memo contended, making the new technology unnecessary. Incorporating it would be time-consuming, complicated and require extensive training. And, if the project involved paying grantees in cryptocurrency instead of dollars, it would inject volatility and unpredictability into the funding stream, even if the currency was a stablecoin. In subsequent discussions with HUD staffers, the memos author described the proposal as a beachhead at HUD for the introduction of cryptocurrency, which the author compared to monopoly money. CPD officials continued to raise concerns in a follow-up meeting, a recording of which was reviewed by ProPublica. (Judson did not attend this one.) Some attendees saw merit in the blockchain idea, suggesting it could reduce inaccurate data from grant recipients and enable real-time reporting and monitoring of their spending. Maybe there is something that we could learn from it, one said, especially if we feel like the broader federal government is moving towards soe sort of stablecoin option in the future. One official asked why the agency was considering the project. Because its sexy, someone replied. Another said, Irv has asked us to pursue blockchain, so thats why we are looking at it, referring to Dennis. Many details were left unexplained at the meeting, including, crucially, whether the proposal would involve paying grantees in cryptocurrency. But some signaled that it would. You can do it with what would be attached to a stable currency. That would be up to Treasury, and I think theyre already going that way, for what its worth, one official said. It would simulate the dollar. Another added, It would basically be a cryptocurrency that is linked to the U.S. dollar on a one-for-one basis. A finance official suggested the idea could be applied more broadly across HUD. We are looking at this for the entire enterprise. We just wanted to start in CPD, he said. The agency is also considering the idea for the Office of Public and Indian Housing, he said, for tenant eligibility and stuff like that. That office serves the millions of people who live in public and federally subsidized housing. This is not the first time that federal officials have considered incorporating the blockchain into the work of the government. Agencies including the Treasury Department, the Department of Commerce and even HUD have been involved in a study, a prototype and a working group in recent years. But those who monitor the crypto industry were not aware of as broad an application of the technology in the federal government as what HUD officials have recently discussed. Some crypto experts were dubious. Its a terrible idea, said Corey Frayer, a former official at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he focused on the crypto markets and financial stability. It is absolutely wild that anyone with any sense would consider this. Frayer, now at the Consumer Federation of America, warned that HUD grants paid in stablecoin could fall in value. He expressed greatest concern about the notion that the proposal could expand to other parts of the agency. If that included, for example, introducing stablecoin into the $1.3 trillion in mortgage insurance provided by the Federal Housing Administration, a fluctuation in the value of the stablecoin could have a major economic impact, he said. Imagine a world in which all of the government involvement in the housing industry, all of the funds circulating in that environment, dropped in value by 13%, he said, citing a 2023 episode in which a stablecoin briefly fell 13 cents below the dollar. Its hard to imagine that wouldnt be catastrophic. Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University who researches financial regulation and technology, noted that some high-profile attempts to use the blockchain for purposes unrelated to cryptocurrency have failed. She expressed skepticism that the technology would fare better in the context of government grants, where bad outcomes could harm those who depend on HUD funding to survive. Blockchain technology has been around for 15 years. No one wants to use it. And so now we have an attempt to force the government to use it, she said, with the most vulnerable people serving as guinea pigs. Mollie Simon contributed research.
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This is for the crafty girls who want to save money, goes the voiceover on a recent TikTok, panning over the cheerful purple-and-gray exterior of Savannahs Starlandia Art Supply and its shelves stocked with art supplies. You need to be going to creative reuse stores, which are like thrift stores, but for crafts. Another TikTok keeps it even simpler, with the text pov: you find out thrift stores for arts & crafts exist, overlaid on a montage of the treasures available at Seattle Recreativepaint brushes, markers, a whole wall of yarn. In fact, there are dozens of these “creative reuse centers” spread out across the country, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Atlanta, Georgia. Some centers have been operating for decades; others have sprung up since the pandemic, amid renewed enthusiasm for crafty hobbies. They sell everything from crayons to stamps to beads to fabric, and their mission is explicitly tied to sustainability. Organizers say theyre getting more and more emails and calls from people interested in establishing their own local spot. And yes, the young people on TikTokwho love craftingare very enthusiastic about the idea. It’s likely that interest will only grow with news that the fabric store Joanna decades-old stalwart for sewers, knitters, and other craftersis closing all its remaining stores. My feeling is every municipality should have one of these, says Barbara Korein of Retake/Remake in Peekskill, New York. [Photo: courtesy of the author] Retake/Remake is a bustling little spot tucked into a converted turn-of-the-century hat factory in northern Westchester Countyand its my local creative reuse center, a regular stop on my Saturday morning rounds and my go-to for everything from old National Geographic maps for Girl Scout projects to cross-stitch materials to slightly patchouli-scented wrapping paper. Retake/Remake accepts donations on the first Tuesday of every month and typically gets around 1,000 pounds of materials, says Korein. Weve converted about 113,000 pounds of waste from the waste stream. The items are affordably priced when they put them out on the shelves, too: I once bought several skeins of hand-dyed yarn, a merino wool and alpaca blend, for $10 each, with an original sticker price of $32; Ive bought needlepoint canvases, which are famously pricy, for as low as $1. [Photo: courtesy of the author] The concept is an elegant solution to a longstanding problem: Generally, traditional thrift stores dont know what to do with half-used art supplies. Its an easy thing to identify and its a hard thing to donate, says Korein. Often, they go straight into the trash and eventually the landfill. But theres demand for that half-empty box of crayonsteachers, for instance, who often spend their own money on classroom supplies. Many creative reuse centers have special programs to serve this group: Austin Creative Reuse, for instance, has a Materials Mobile, which brings a truck full of no-cost supplies straight to educators. Creative small businesses often turn to these stores, for instance, and artists are a core constituency: If you have $20 left for your art supplies, and you go to a traditional art center and buy a $20 tube of yellow paint, then whatever youre painting is going to be yellow, and also its going to be paint, says Jenn Evans of Austin Creative Reuse. But at a creative reuse center, that same $20 might buy a variety of paints and materialsand broaden artistic horizons. It allows the artist to create artwork from their brains and their heart and not just have it limited by the materials that they can afford. [Photo: Austin Creative Reuse] Weve seen all people from all walks of life come in, says Ulisa Blakely, Director of Programs and Development at The Wasteshed in Chicago. But the patterns we typically see are students, teachers, artists whether theyre emerging or established, and also a lot of BIPOC people, which is awesome. [Photo: Austin Creative Reuse] The basic idea has been aroun for decades: The countrys first creative reuse center, San Franciscos SCRAP, was opened in 1976 by Anne Marie Theilen and artist Ruth Asawa. SCRAP grew out of a program by the San Francisco Arts Commission to bring working artists into schools, but money for supplies was scarce. Two years later, New York Citys Materials for the Arts was founded by Angela Fremont, an artist working at the Department of Cultural Affairs; its now a 35,000-square-foot behemoth (though shoppable by appointment only) supported by the City of New York. [Photo: Anthony Sertel Dean/courtesy Materials for The Arts] The idea percolated around the country over the years that followed, often in association with other reuse organizations. But it seems theres been a jump in the past decade, and its accelerating. Each center serves as a catalyst for the next oneKorein, for instance, volunteered at Materials for the Arts for a decade and served on their board. The more centers there are, the more people become aware of this idea, says Evans. And it turns out to be a pretty seductive idea. [Photo: Anthony Sertel Dean/courtesy Materials for The Arts] New technologies are making it possible for word to spread faster, too, and TikTok in particular can translate directly to increased business. Kimberly Maruska, executive director of SCRAP Creative Reuse (which is unrelated to the San Francisco original and has four locations across the country), says that after a popular TikTok featured their Ann Arbor outpost, they saw a huge jump in sales and new customers who cited the Tiktok. Those people are still coming in, says Maruska. They didnt stop. Part of the appeal of creative reuse centers is their sheer practicalitywhy trash perfectly good materials, when teachers and artists are both famously cash-strapped? Theyre handy for businesses with leftover materials, or individuals who want somewhere to take emotionally complicated donationspeople who dont knit, for example, want their beloved great aunts yarn stash to go to somebody wholl appreciate it. [Photo: Anna Droddy/courtesy Materials for The Arts] In general, being creative is getting very expensive, says Evans. Creative reuse centers are a way to try something new without a huge financial commitment, and even seasoned crafters are keen for more affordable options. But theres a broader, less concrete appeal, too. Its an easy way to get involved in grassroots causes, says Blakely. Its an approachable step into a more sustainable life, and thats by design. We attract people to the idea of creative reuse by offering them low-cost art and craft and school supplies, says Evans. But then once they come to us, we want to open a conversation with them about the environmental aspects of what theyre doing and to celebrate the fact that theyre shopping secondhand. In an era of fast fashion and haul videos, creative reuse centers offer a particularly charming glimpse at another path. Creative reuse centers serve as community hubs, too. Centers generally offer programming beyond the materials. The Wasteshed and Austin Creative Reuse have both hosted trash fashion shows, for example, where competitors have to use provided materials in a kind of creative reuse-themed Project Runway. We create communities around us, says Maruska. Were taking in donations from local community members, businesses, were having educational programming, were partnering with other local nonprofits or libraries or schools. Most of these centers are nonprofits; theres little chance of a financial jackpot, and its a mission-driven labor of love that tends to attract passionate people. It really feels good to be part of something that everybody seems to benefit from, says Korein. All those aspects combine to create the quality I personally love best about Retake/Remake, which is that it allows me to imagine art as a practice for its own sake. I dont have to produce anything gallery-worthy; I dont have to justify it as a potential side-hustle. It doesnt even have to be particularly good. It can just be for meart as part of a straightforward human impulse to create.
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Workplace stress reached an all-time high in 2022, according to a Gallup report. And a 2022 Work and Well-Being Survey from the American Psychological Association found that workers appreciate and seek mental health support in the workplace. Thats why its important for employees to learn and practice techniques that will help them lower their stress during moments when stress levels are high. One way to do this is by creating positive experiences during highly stressful situations, such as recalling times when we were confident, calm, and in control. These serve as emotional anchors that we can trigger at will. In my book, Emotional Intelligence Game Changers: 101 Simple Ways to Win at Work + Life, I share tips on how to increase our confidence. Here are several techniques for bringing ourselves into that state. 1. Identify the state we want to experience Take a moment to think of a time when you were in charge of the situation, relaxed and confident with the way things were working out. Remember the feeling that came to you. Think back to that time and try to replay the feelings and sensations in your body when that was happening. Focus on feelings such as confidence, calm, and joy you experienced. Ask yourself, what details can you remember that will bring you back to that place? 2. Find something that will trigger that state, time, and place Work on finding a physical action that will cause you to automatically think of the situation that brings you into a positive state. This could be a physical gesture, such as tapping yourself on a part of your body. Practice this gesture while bringing yourself into a positive state. And make sure you keep this gesture specific to this purpose, and try to avoid using it for anything else. 3. Check out the anchor in less stressful situations Instead of waiting to use it in a highly stressful situation, test out the anchor in moments when you aren’t feeling stressful. If it works effectively, then it should be able to work when stress is more prevalent. If the anchor isnt working as youd expect or want it to, revisit the anchor technique by intensifying the emotion around the event, and modify your trigger accordingly. 4. Keep practicing and strengthening the anchor Look for situations throughout the day when you can practice using your anchor. Any situation that increases your stress, even in small levels, is an opportunity to use and solidify the effects of the anchor. Youll find that if you practice this technique over time, it will become easier to access when you most need it. Youll no longer need to think of the anchor because it’ll become your natural response in stressful situations. 5. Put your body into it Another way of strengthening the anchor is to align our physical state with the feelings of confidence. When you straighten your body, put out your chest, and pull back your shoulders, you encourage your body to amplify readiness, strength, and confidence. Add this posture to your anchor. 6. Add an inner mantra Repeating a mantra over time can also add strength to the anchor. Personalize it to make it more uniquely yours. You’ll want to use words that are powerful, that deeply resonate with you, and that are true of how you felt during the time when youre experiencing the feelings. 7. Think of situations where the anchor will be helpful The best way to strengthen the anchor is to anticipate situations where you know it can be useful, then practice using it during these times. Any place, time, or circumstance that brings you out of your comfort zones is a great time to practice. As you begin to experience the benefits of using this in various situations, youll find it more and more natural to practice these anchors, and youll also embed it in your habits and memories.
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