Consumer Law

New HUD Secretary?

By Alan White

By Alan White
President Bush has announced his nominee to replace Alfonso Jackson as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The nominee's qualifications to run HUD and set the nation's housing policy, including vital issues of FHA mortgage reform and revamped mortgage disclosure rules? Not clear.

When Steven Preston was appointed to run the Small Business Administration in 2006, small businesses were not impressed. This post at the Carpetbagger critiques Mr. Preston's credentials to run the SBA, and notes that his primary qualification seems to have been loyalty to, and fundraising for, the Republican party. He previously served as Exec VP of ServiceMaster, the company that owns Chemlawn and Terminix, and in that capacity was highly critical of EPA regulation. Both former Secretary Jackson and nominee Preston have been charged with steering government contracts to unqualified cronies. At a time when the nation's cities and home financing system are in crisis, this nomination reveals the present Administration's indifference (one might even say contempt) for HUD's mission.

Jackson's HUD, for example, has done little to rebuild New Orleans or house its homeless, while supporting the New Orleans housing authority's plan to demolish 5000 units of low-income housing formerly occupied by Katrina victims, with no plan for replacement housing.

Full post as published by CL&P Blog on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).