President Obama has nominated San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to be the next Secretary of Housing & Urban Development. Castro will replace Shaun Donovan, who has been HUD Secretary since the election of Obama. Obama will nominate Donovan to be the next Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
It is expected that Castro will oversee implementation of three main administration objectives for HUD:
1. Increased utilization of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program with private money backing for public housing revitalization and making Section 8 the sole source of public and assisted housing rental assistance;
2. Improve the viability of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in order to allow the agency’s profits to continue absorbing a large part of HUD’s operating expenses; and
3. Move forward with strict enforcement of federal fair housing laws under the trilogy of fair housing act regulations aimed at consolidation of fair housing actions.