Ben Carson’s first two years as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development have not gone particularly well. Last February, the same month the administration proposed cutting billions from an agency whose mission is to help the homeless, poor, and elderly, it emerged that Carson had spent $31,561 on a new dining-room set for his office. As dozens of legacy staffers flee the scene, the former presidential candidate is reportedly replacing them with people who have zero housing-policy experience, installing at least 16 in high-paying positions. There are Carson’s many verbal slipups, such as his description of Africans sent to America on slave ships as “immigrants,” and his now-infamous line about poverty being a “state of mind.” Some of this could perhaps be overlooked, if it turned out Carson was actually doing an effective job for the people his agency is designed to protect. But, as it turns out, his actual work for HUD hasn’t been going so hot, either.

NBC News reports that Carson’s signature initiative, the EnVision Centers project, which seeks to establish spaces for low-income families to obtain job training, health-care services, and education, has “gone nowhere.” Carson has been openly enthusiastic about the project, hyping it in Cabinet meetings, testimony to Congress, and per NBC, “at least 20 media interviews.” “There’s a verse in the Bible that says, without a vision people perish,” he said in a TV interview in June. “There have been a lot of people who have really lost a vision of the promise of America.”

And yet, eight months after unveiling the initiative, not one center has opened . . . which might have something to do with the fact that, apparently, Carson has failed to provide much detail.

“No one actually knows what they are supposed to do,” said Chad Williams, executive director of the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority, which includes Las Vegas where the affordable housing crisis is severe. “I was approached to run one, and I said: ‘What does it do? Where’s the funding?’”

Williams says he declined to participate after finding out there was no money attached. “EnVision Centers are a failed policy perception,” Williams said. “I guess they give the image that HUD is doing something.”

At proposed centers around the country, staffers say any work that is happening appears to be a rebranding of previous housing-authority services. While a phone app was created to “showcase” the centers, naturally, “it does not indicate where the centers are located.” Where new organizations have been tapped as partners, the services offered seem . . . slightly incongruous with the stated mission of helping low-income Americans achieve self-sufficiency:

One such group is the Colorado-based Space Foundation, which marketed its services to the centers, including a “virtual audience with an astronaut,” at the cost of $7,000 for a single two-hour session.

In a statement, HUD spokesperson Raffi Williams told NBC News that none of the centers have officially opened because officials are still holding “roundtables to solicit input from community leaders, local residents and potential service providers about the unique needs of their community.” A source “close to Carson” told NBC he is “not happy” about the holdup, but remains optimistic: “The secretary is confident that recent staffing changes will ensure greater progress on this initiative,” the source said.