Department of Housing and Urban Development - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Department of Housing and Urban Development Index / Organizations Transcripts Maya Shankar ...was trying to get more residents of the Department of Housing and Urban Development , they have assisted housing units. An... Rob Nabors ...discretionary spending; let's go after HUD [US Department of Housing and Urba... ...spending; let's go after HUD [US Department of Housing and Urban Development ]. HUD is not going to balance th... ...of Housing and Urban Development]. HUD is not going to balance the budget. S... Julián Castro ...as secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] in the [Barack H.] Obama [II... ...of Housing and Urban Development [ HUD ] in the [Barack H.] Obama [II... ...lessons also with me when I went to HUD , and we were trying to engage peopl... ...how did you do that while you were at HUD in a position where there is seemingl... ...people who were on the receiving end of HUD investments. People living in publi... ...perspective with the workforce there at HUD and tried to listen to parts of th... ...that were being made through HUD and Department of Labor and othe... ...both as mayor and then also when I was HUD secretary. I'm not a hundred percen... ...be invited to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama administration? ... ...if I had an interest in serving as HUD secretary, because Shaun [Lawrenc... ...Sarda] Donovan, who was then the HUD secretary, was going to be appointed t... ...at and had an interest in serving as HUD secretary, obviously, becaus... ...to invest in underserved communities at HUD than, say, at the Department o... ...more of an interest in the work that HUD does. It was closer to my heart. It wa... ...been. You'd mentioned the staff at HUD before. After you were confirmed... ...were confirmed, President Obama came to HUD for a welcome ceremony in your honor... ...I've read that when you arrived at HUD there were 8,500 employees compared t... ...qualified people to come and work at HUD or did it reflect limits on hiring? ... ...CDBG funding, which is the most popular HUD program. CDBG started in August o... ...so helpful. In your first speech as HUD secretary in September of 2014, yo... ...your own community before you came to HUD ? What I had heard both growing u... ...I had the experience of serving as HUD secretary. It wasn't something that ... ...there ways that, when you arrived at HUD , you saw limited access to data abou... ...Antonio than you did while you were at HUD ? It felt like it. But then again... ...again, probably when I was secretary of HUD I was asking for broader and als... ...rest of the agencies and the rest of HUD , because that's what they do an... ...a concern to you during your time at HUD ? Sure, of course, because so man... ...to you the further into your tenure at HUD that you got? Yes. I mean part of i... ...those issues. But during my tenure at HUD , whether it was alternative credi... ...over the course of your tenure at HUD ? There was less activity as it wen... ...who had benefited from one of HUD 's programs. The group that organize... ...little bit about what we were doing at HUD and just filling him in. Do yo... ...We talked a little bit, just non- HUD business in the car. I mean nothin... ...you wanted to fix during your time at HUD and coming to the end of your time a... ...and coming to the end of your time at HUD ? For years there had been a critiqu... ...so interesting. How does staff at HUD surface issues like that when they wan... ...in general, broadly, even outside of HUD . There are certainly folks tha... ...that were taken from people within HUD . What I remember was that some peopl... ...ask you about ConnectHome, which was a HUD initiative to collaborate with privat... ...And then, third, it was organized by HUD , which was not a department that the... ...you to see from the vantage point at HUD ? It had been on my radar to som... ...in the way that it was when I went to HUD . Really, in the transition from mayo... ...Really, in the transition from mayor to HUD secretary, as I thought about what I'... ...climate change. In January of 2016 HUD awarded New York federal funds fo... ...there was a committee of people inside HUD and outside HUD that evaluated each o... ...of people inside HUD and outside HUD that evaluated each of the proposals... ...and its challenges remain a part of HUD 's work during your tenure beginning i... ...during your tenure beginning in 2014? HUD was still deeply involved in helping t... ...for both communities and for HUD , it seemed like we were reinventin... ...ultimately that was taken up by HUD itself, but one of the foundations di... ...My hope is that that has benefited HUD in the last couple of years. Wer... ...changed between the time you arrived at HUD in 2014 and the end of th... ...state and local governments to use HUD data and tools to assess loca... ...Act that said that the secretary of HUD should affirmatively further fai... ...really. In the 1990s, I believe under HUD Secretary [Andrew Mark] Cuomo, ther... ...saw as potentially being dictated to by HUD about—You have to do x, y, and z... ...and sometimes a misconception that HUD 's trying to dictate land us... ... Starting probably in about 2012, HUD undertook a robust series of meetings... ...ability to penalize them by withdrawing HUD funds. You talked about some of thos... ...and saw in Ferguson? Yes. In 2016 HUD issued guidance to landlords to remin... ...more time on if you had more years at HUD , and specifically, “ending chroni... ...wish you'd had more time to spend on at HUD ? I think all of them. [Laughs] M... Show more... Arne Duncan ...communities, we have to work with HUD [Department of Housing and Urba... ...communities, we have to work with HUD [ Department of Housing and Urban Development ].” So it was really important... ...I worked with Shaun Donovan closely in HUD . And to go in those communities and t... Larry Summers ...The political people and the HUD [Department of Housing and Urba... ...The political people and the HUD [ Department of Housing and Urban Development ], whose interest was all in helpin... Diane Johnson ...served as director of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] Newark field office during th... ...of Housing and Urban Development [ HUD ] Newark field office during the year... ...Luis Quintana, regional director of HUD 's New York and New Jersey fiel... ...acting field office director for HUD 's Detroit field office, and recover... ...that I come to take the test for the Department of Housing and Urban Development , which I did. Passed the civil servic... ...took the exam and started to work for HUD in about 1972? You got it. Wha... ...job in New Jersey when you first got to HUD in the early 1970s? When I first go... ...the early 1970s? When I first got to HUD , I was working as a community servic... ...with residents when you first began at HUD in the early 1970s? Yes, because th... ...do your job when you first started at HUD in the 1970s? The only thing I woul... ...housing structures when you began at HUD in the 1970s. Can I ask you to talk ... ...concrete. I was able to get Washington HUD to agree to give the same approvals t... ...your work. As the director of HUD , I also was the director of—FH... ...However, I was very close to the HUD -Approved [Housing] Counselin... ...terms of what they wanted to see from HUD in the context of affordable housin... ...balance not only my responsibilities at HUD but also my responsibilities at home... ...those decades. Oh, I was very busy in HUD . And let me tell you, I haven'... ...capacity because, as I indicated, the HUD in Philadelphia took care o... ...if I remember correctly, to bring in HUD -approved counselors to interact wit... ...both personally but also as a federal HUD official, why do you think it was s... ...prevention, and the ways that you and HUD were involved in trying to take on th... ...you tried during your time at HUD to make that argument? Thousands o... ...helpful. And Lyons was separate from HUD -VASH? No, no, no, no. They use... ...HUD-VASH? No, no, no, no. They used HUD -VASH. I see. So, in fact, HUD-VAS... ...used HUD-VASH. I see. So, in fact, HUD -VASH enabled some progress on th... ...office, of course. When a program like HUD -VASH is appropriated by Congress an... ...months of 2013, just before you left HUD , sequestration went into effect... ...negotiations and so on, that you left HUD earlier than you had planned? ... ...start with this question—how did the HUD Newark field office, and what do yo... ...Shortly before you retired from HUD , which, I think, was in December o... ...that the educational component of the Department of Housing and Urban Development during my leadership, we communicate... ...from the vantage point you had at HUD , I'm sure, did that change ways yo... ...now, Newark received a lot of federal HUD money. They received Communit... ...much different way than you had in the HUD field office, did that change your vie... ...after the '67 riots, was built under a HUD program, a multifamily HUD program. HU... ...under a HUD program, a multifamily HUD program. HUD also—back in the days, Ne... ...HUD program, a multifamily HUD program. HUD also—back in the days, New Communit... ...with other disabilities or whatever— HUD at that time was funding. In addition... ...board. But when I was the director of HUD , that's when the applications came i... ...Yes, there is a nursing home that HUD funded for at New Community. There is ... ...years. And you're retired from HUD but not retired, it sounds like. ... ...throughout the forty years you spent at HUD . I would say it this way. The way ... Show more... Brian Deese ...from across the administration, your HUD [Department of Housing and Urba... ...across the administration, your HUD [ Department of Housing and Urban Development ] secretary, your [Department of] Labo... Ronald Klain ...get the Department of Labor and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to do the kind of survey you have to d... Shaun Donovan ...as secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], and the director of the Offic... ...of Housing and Urban Development [ HUD ], and the director of the Office o... ...development and research, PD&R, at HUD ; went to do that job; and then wa... ...Corporation to partner with HUD . They were trying something like this... ...partners who could basically, for HUD , go around the country and work wit... ...and owners to try to preserve HUD -assisted housing. I put together th... ...in which I really began to understand HUD 's programs. And actually, we ha... ...were properties, then, when I went to HUD , I oversaw. So I think it was one o... ...for me.” And so I ended up, from the HUD side, overseeing that program that ... ...something I worked extensively on as HUD secretary. I was very proud of my wor... ...I was running the multifamily part of HUD , but it was something, certainly, tha... ...the first few weeks of starting at HUD , Michelle [L. Robinson Obama] came t... ...Michelle [L. Robinson Obama] came to HUD . It was part of a tour she did of th... ...agencies to inspire them. And like HPD, HUD —a huge share of the employees ar... ...of the employees are Black women at HUD . And this was in the lunchroom, th... ...[Robert C.] Weaver was the first HUD secretary. No, I'm sorry. Brooke... ...story. Were you offered the job as HUD secretary during that interview? No... ...for fifty years, about you becoming HUD secretary? [Pause] What does an... ...Senator Menendez suggested that HUD had “been sitting at the kids' table... ...for that to change. When your tenure as HUD secretary started in 2009, to wha... ...started in 2009, to what extent had HUD become involved in trying to resolv... ...crisis? I think it is fair that HUD had been left out of a bunch of th... ...Jackson had been secretary. He left HUD , I think, with six months left in th... ...were at Treasury, rather than at HUD . There were som... ...But there was definitely a sense that HUD was on the outside and that Treasur... ...as well. When you first arrived at HUD , I wanted to ask about the way th... ...of infrastructural resources affected HUD 's ability to get involved in th... ...and Freddie loans—but obviously, the HUD secretary is in charge of the FH... ...a little bit the question of whether HUD was at the grown-up table. I thin... ...as secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and [unclear] Office of Management an... ...a little bit about the ways that the Department of Housing and Urban Development was still dealing with the aftermath o... ...Just to give you some background, HUD has this very underappreciated role i... ...[Federal Emergency Management Agency], HUD is really the second most importan... ...think we made a lot of progress. For HUD in particular, HUD had essentiall... ...lot of progress. For HUD in particular, HUD had essentially become, in some ways... ...works is, Congress makes an allocation. HUD then decides how much to send to eac... ...governments design those programs, but HUD has to approve. The program tha... ...of work in the administration, but at HUD in particular, to try to both remov... ...one of my first trips down after I was HUD secretary, I had dinner with Moon [E... ...had been mayor of New Orleans and then HUD secretary for President Carter. So ... ...Of all of the issues that you, at HUD , had to work on in an interagency way... ...okay. I read that during your tenure as HUD secretary, you walked aroun... ...DC, one night a year as part of HUD 's point in time assessment, whic... ...to connect the work you were doing at HUD to real people in ways that wer... ...I was in retail. When I went to HUD , I was in wholesale. And at OMB, I wa... ...that was really important to me at HUD , but also at OMB, was finding ways t... ...I think I went to forty-six states as HUD secretary. And it would really recharg... ...to my lawyers and my program people at HUD , basically, their heads exploded. The... ...from a legal point of view, to having HUD steer that program fully? Ver... ...some of the decisions that you made at HUD . With something like the point in tim... ...you tried to change the culture at HUD in a similar way? Absolutely. And ... ...me. I quickly came to New York, given HUD was going to have a big role in th... ...that this wasn't just going to be HUD , this was going to be overseeing th... ...get a foreign national a job at HUD . But we worked it out. He got a job a... ...at the Dutch embassy and was loaned to HUD , and together, we created Rebuild b... ...everyone who was involved—the people at HUD , at Rockefeller. We ended getting ... ...financial reform and regulation than in HUD 's purview. Yes, but I would also sa... ...didn't necessarily have, and because HUD is a huge—I mean, FHA is ... ...I used to have lunch once a month at HUD , at that now-famous dining set tha... ...I found out I got the job at HUD , we were living in Brooklyn. My wif... ...as secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the director of the Office o... ...both in your capacity as secretary of HUD , as well as in your capacity a... ...playing out, from my vantage point as HUD secretary, was, we could litigat... ...a meeting in my conference room at the HUD building. Tom Perrelli was my partne... ...Administration, FHA, which is part of HUD , which is a government-guarantee... ...important to me during my time at HUD was to ensure that the LGBTQ+ communit... ...redefined “family,” for the purposes of HUD housing, to include same-sex partners... ...answering a lot of questions about what HUD does, and what we'd done, and why we'... ...more a personal reaction than it was a HUD secretary reaction. And the reporte... ...in all of this work we were doing at HUD , so I think he was incredibly excite... ...Were there specific steps you took at HUD to prepare for sequestration, and wer... ...the housing market? So, you ask about HUD , but obviously, as the budge... ...sequestration very specifically at HUD , to answer your question; because i... ...planning around that, but I felt, as HUD secretary, and especially as budge... ...I was in retail; when I went to HUD , I was in wholesale; at OMB, I was i... ...Secretary Donovan. When your tenure at HUD ended, you were th... ...you were the second-longest-serving HUD secretary in history, and I wanted t... ...yes, still are the second-longest HUD secretary in history. Given that, ... ...very long—historically long—tenure at HUD . Yes, you're asking me to pick amon... ...of OMB, President Obama visited the Department of Housing and Urban Development with you and the incoming secretary, o... ...to ask if you remember that visit to HUD . Did you learn anything abou... ...before in watching him interact with HUD employees? I do remember that visi... ...well. I also remember Michelle visiting HUD just a few weeks after I'd started... ...I wanted to ask how your time leading HUD changed how you thought about th... ...clear rules of the road, etc. And HUD made me believe that strongly, t... ...for me. It was a moral issue for me at HUD . I worked extensively on gettin... ...tens of billions of dollars a year as HUD secretary to clean up damage fro... ...it's something I saw very directly at HUD . There was enormous excitement abou... ...government—something like two-thirds of HUD employees were eligible fo... ...standing at the elevators in the HUD building on the last day before th... ...was influenced—we did a lot of work at HUD on this kind of place-base... ...of others. We had an initiative at HUD called Strong Cities, Stron... ...in our earlier sessions, but I was at HUD during the Clinton administration an... ...experience. Then, I was nominated to be HUD secretary before the transition to th... ...a stack of letters—and I'm working at HUD —saying, “If you don't help us, Shaun... ...that I was going to be announced as HUD secretary. We were living in Brooklyn... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Chicago Chicago go to the Obama in the Senate Obama in the Senate go to the Asia Rebalance Asia Rebalance go to the Veterans Veterans go to the Science Science