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Department of Housing and Urban Development, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing
Department/Agency: Department of Housing and Urban Development
Position:
Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing
Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation
Major Responsibilities:
Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:
- Affordable housing expertise
- Management experience running large public housing authority
- Ability to work with and on behalf of residents in low income communities
- Keen understanding of needs and interests of Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Native Alaskans
Insight:
This assistant secretary administers all of HUD’s public housing programs, including Section 8 rental assistance and housing and loan guarantee programs for Native Americans. These programs, which date back to 1937 and the Great Depression, account for more than 60 percent of HUD’s operating budget. The Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) and its nationwide staff of 1,600 deal with 3,400 housing authorities nationwide and help 1.3 million households find places to live and pay the rent. The stated mission is to ensure safe, decent, and affordable housing, help residents attain self-sufficiency and economic independence, and make sure that taxpayer dollars are not misspent. HUD provides technical and professional assistance to help housing agencies manage and modernize the existing stock of public housing and build new units. It also funds efforts to address crime, bolster security and provide opportunities for tenants.
Disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita intensify the demands on HUD for housing assistance. Two years after that hurricane devastated the Gulf Coast and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, then-Assistant Secretary Orlando Cabrera told Congress, “We have taken great strides in the recovery effort; yet, there are still many challenges that lie ahead, especially in Louisiana.” He said that of the 5,100 public housing units destroyed in New Orleans alone, “more than 2,000 units have been repaired and are habitable. Over 1,600 families have already come back to New Orleans to re-occupy these units and additional families will be returning.”
“While New Orleans public housing is an important and visible piece of providing affordable rental housing in the region, it represents only a small number of the 112,000rental units seriously damaged by the storms in the five-state Gulf Coast region,” Cabrera said. “In total, 13 percent of the damaged rental stock in the Gulf region was subsidized housing. Although mostly unsubsidized, 75 percent of the damaged stock was occupied by low income households.” Thousands of families who exhausted their housing aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency now are being helped by HUD. But Cabrera acknowledged, “The path to rebuilding affordable rental housing continues to be challenging. The federal government has done a lot to help the states and the owners, and we are confident that the entities are on the right path to addressing their many challenges. It is a path, however, that is going to take longer than we want.”
That challenge remains for the Obama administration and the next assistant secretary for public and Indian housing.
The Bush administration pushed hard to change rent subsidies into a voucher system that that could give tenants wider and better choices of where to live.
Key Relationships – Within the Department or Agency:
Deputy Secretary
General Counsel
Federal Housing Finance Board
Managing Director
Chief Financial Officers
HUD regional directors
Key Relationships – Outside the Government:
Mayors and county executives
Housing authority leaders
Mortgage and financial industry executives
Tenant and community group leaders
Nomination Referred to:
Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
Current Position Profile:
1. Sandra Henriquez (Confirmed: May 21, 2009). Former Administrator, Boston Housing Authority, City of Boston, Massachusetts.
Recent Position Profiles:
2. Orlando J. Cabrera, J.D. (2005-2008). Lawyer, former executive director of the Florida Housing Finance Corp. 3. Michael Liu (2001-2005). Former Bank of America vice president and senior vice president for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. Former deputy under secretary of agriculture. Now with public policy consulting firm Dutko Worldwide.
4. Harold Lucas (1998-2001). Former executive director of Newark, N.J., Housing Authority and former city business manager of Newark.
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