When President Donald Trump dispatched her to HUD in February — a month before Carson’s arrival — industry lobbyists mostly shrugged it off. But the former events planner quickly made a mark, big-footing experienced staffers and flubbing the rollout of Carson’s first public appearances as secretary, according to people close to the secretary.

During his confirmation hearing, Carson had promised to take a nationwide listening tour to get his bearings, a move widely praised by housing activists. Planning the tour fell to the professional — Patton.

It didn’t go well. The launch was barely publicized, denying the new HUD secretary news coverage as he visited his hometown of Detroit. In other cities, Carson praised programs targeted for budget cuts, a blunder that suggested he hadn’t been properly coached by staff.

In April, the secretary was ridiculed when he got stuck in an elevator at a Miami housing project. Soon after, his staff suspended the listening tour, which his own allies chalked up as a disaster.

Patton wasn’t suited for that job, according to the people close to Carson. But given her friendship with the Trumps, banishment to a far-flung office wasn’t an option, they said. She wanted the New York job, and she got it.

Her résumé was a challenge. Rumors of her appointment caused so much heartburn in New York that it made tabloid headlines. When it came time for a formal announcement, Patton tried to juice her own news release, claiming experience she didn’t have, including skill in bipartisan politics. The language was dialed back, according to the people close to Carson.

Carson on Monday released a statement praising Patton’s “energy and enthusiasm” and “strong desire to engage and foster relationships across bipartisan silos.”

Beyond the Trump family, Patton seems to have little job experience. Her LinkedIn page cites Quinnipiac University School of Law, which she attended briefly, and Yale, which she didn’t attend at all.

She was a Red Cross supervisor in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, identifying housing for “hundreds of displaced families” in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the HUD news release.

She also serves on the Trump administration’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, according to the release.

“As someone with both the trust and respect of the HUD Secretary and the President of the United States, I look forward to advocating before them on behalf of the city and region I call home,” Patton said in a statement.

HUD spokesman Raffi Williams said: “The listening tour was designed to help Secretary Carson develop his priorities and gather information to shape future policy. It was not intended to garner publicity.”

Patton is the third of 10 HUD regional administrators named by the administration. Beth Van Duyne, an early Trump supporter and former mayor of Irving, Texas, was awarded the top spot at HUD’s Fort Worth office in April, covering five states. In May, the administration installed Joe DeFelice, a Republican organizer and Trump supporter, at the helm of HUD’s regional office in Philadelphia.

Neither has significant housing experience, but, unlike Patton, both have government know-how and local political chops.

As HUD secretary under President George W. Bush, Alphonso Jackson said he sought regional administrators who had “the best relationships” with the people they’d be representing. His pick for New York, Sean Moss, was an executive with the state’s economic development authority.

“It’s not necessary that they had to have housing experience, but they had to have relationships,” Jackson said. “You’re going to have to deal with the mayor, you’re going to have to deal with the governor, you’re going to have to deal with the senators.”

New York’s housing market is uniquely dense, expensive and deeply invested in public assistance. Community activists and their well-heeled industry partners can — and do — bring political pressure to bear on government and elected officials.

Diplomacy will be a big part of Patton’s new job. Regional administrators are HUD’s community liaisons and problem solvers in the field. The best have a background in housing, said Carol Galante, who led the Federal Housing Administration under President Barack Obama.

“It’s important that they have some knowledge of what HUD does, what it can and can’t do,” Galante said. “Otherwise, they could create a mess.”

The Obama administration had its share of political patronage, too, Galante said. But there were also plenty of campaign workers who wanted jobs and didn’t get them.

“Campaign workers get hired in the administration all the time, but they’re not at the level of running a region,” Galante said. “You had to have something to contribute.”

Patton has worked for the Trump family since at least 2009, according to her LinkedIn profile, most recently as an unpaid vice president at the Eric Trump Foundation, where she planned major fundraising events.

While organizing parties for the foundation, she was collecting a paycheck from the Trump Organization, where she earned $106,000 in compensation, which included free golf and hotel stays, while serving as assistant to Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Patton’s job at HUD pays $160,000 a year.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is pursuing allegations that Eric Trump’s charity illegally funneled payments to the family’s for-profit business, at which he and Patton worked. The foundation ceased fundraising on Dec. 31. Last week, it filed paperwork to change its board structure and resume operations under the name Curetivity.

If Carson’s team thought moving Patton to New York would cure its headaches, it was wrong. Over the weekend, without giving HUD staff a heads up, Patton sat down with The New York Times to push back on her bad press.

“Misdirected discontent with my boss has prevented people from seeing the obvious fact that I am, more than anyone, best suited to serve as this liaison because, after all, I have a direct line to both the secretary and the president,” she said. “Give me a chance.”

Patton has been public about struggles with substance abuse and addiction and, in an emotional YouTube video posted last year, praised the Trump family for standing by her through tough times. Not everyone is impressed.

“We were surprised to hear that this person doesn’t really have any experience, either political or in housing,” said John Kelly, a Nixon Peabody law partner who represents owners and operators of affordable housing projects in New York. “This just makes me more cynical.”