The 'United States Department of Housing and Urban Development', often abbreviated 'HUD', is a
Cabinet department of the
United States government. Although its beginnings were in the House and Home Financing Agency, it was founded in
1965 to develop and execute policy on housing and cities. It has largely scaled back its urban development function and now focuses primarily on housing.
The department was established on
September 9,
1965 when
President Lyndon Johnson signed the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act (PL 89-174) into law. It stipulated that the department was to be created no later than
November 8, 60 days following the date of enactment. The actual implementation was postponed until
January 13,
1966, following the completion of a special study group report on the federal role in solving urban problems.
HUD is administered by the
United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
History
Larry Thompson, who served in senior positions for 25 years at HUD, has written
A History of HUD, which he hopes will be of value to a wide audience interested in housing and community development.
HUD took over the
Chicago Housing Authority in
1995.
[1]
Operating units
The Department of Housing and Urban Development building, Washington D.C.
HUD has experimented with
Enterprise Zones - granting economic incentives to economically depressed urban areas, but this function has largely been taken over by states.
The major program offices are:
★ Community Planning and Development: Many major affordable housing and homelessness programs are administered under Community Planning and Development. These include the
Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), the HOME program, Shelter Plus Care, Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG),
Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program (Mod Rehab SRO), and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA).
★ Housing: This office is responsible for the
Federal Housing Administration; mission regulation of
Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac; regulation of Manufactured Housing; administration of Multifamily housing programs, including Supportive Housing for the Elderly (Section 202) and Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities (Section 811); and Healthcare facility loan insurance.
★ Public and Indian Housing: This office administers the public housing program
HOPE VI and the Housing Choice Voucher Program, formerly known as (
Section 8) and housing block grants for Indian tribes, Native Hawaiians and Alaskans.
★ Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity: This office enforces Federal laws against discrimination against minority households, families with children, and persons with disability.
★
Policy Development and Research (PD&R): This office is responsible for maintaining current information on housing needs, market conditions,and existing programs, as well as conducting research on priority housing and community development issues through the
HUD USER Clearinghouse.
★
Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae)
★ Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control.
Programs
The 203(k) program offers low-cost loans to allow low-income participants or nonprofit groups to buy and renovate a house. A scandal with the program arose in the
1990s in which at least 700 houses were sold for profit by real estate speculators taking the loans; at least 19 were arrested,
[2] and the situation devastated the housing market in
Brooklyn and
Harlem and resulted in $70 million in HUD loans being defaulted on.
[3] Critics said that HUD's lax oversight of their program allowed the fraud to occur.
[4] In 1997, the HUD Inspector General had issued a report saying: "The program design encourages risky property deals, land sale and refinance schemes, overstated property appraisals, and phony or excessive fees."
[5]
One of the most successful HUD programs over the years has been the
Multifamily Housing Service Coordinator Program. Each year since 1992, HUD has included in its Notice of Fund Availability (NOFA), a specific allocation of dollars to allow sponors and owners of HUD multifamily housing for the elderly the opportunity to hire a Service Coordinator. The Service Coordinator provides case management and coordinative services to elderly residents, particularly to those who are "frail" and "at-risk" allowing them to age in place. As a result, thousands of senior citizens throughout the United States have been given the opportunity to continue to live independently instead of in an institutional facility such as a nursing home. Professional organizations such as the
American Association of Service Coordinators provide support to HUD Service Coordinator through education, training, networking and advocacy.
Accounting problems at HUD
Susan Gaffney, 'Inspector General of HUD', testified before Congress in 2000 that she could not sign off on the fiscal 1999 audit because of “the undetermined effects of the conversion problems of the general ledger from the Program Accounting System [PAS] to HUD’s Central Account and Program System [HUDCAPS] during the fiscal year, the integrated state of HUD’s reconciliation efforts and their documentation for the general ledger accounts for the fund balance with Treasury, and the late manual posting of numerous and significant adjustments (some as late as Feb. 25, 2000) directly to the financial statements, for which we lacked sufficient time to test their legitimacy.”
[6]
Criticisms
In 2006, ''
The Village Voice'' called HUD "New York City's worst landlord" and "the #1 worst in the United States."
Corruption
HUD was well-known in the 1980s for rampant corruption.
Catherine Austin Fitts wrote that when she arrived at HUD as head of operations of the FHA program in 1989, it was comparable to a "sewer" for all the mortgage fraud that had occurred during the '80s: "My favorite description of HUD was to come many years later from staff to the Chairman of the Senate HUD appropriation subcommittee — Senator
Kit Bond. When asked what was going on at HUD, the Congressional staffer said, 'HUD is being run as a criminal enterprise.'"
[7] She wrote:
"After issuing $9 billion in mortgage guarantees, HUD/FHA was to lose something approaching 50% of the value of the portfolio — a level of losses hard to explain with mortal logic. When my staff approached me with a proposal to bail out a mortgage company so they could continue to lose money for us, I asked why we should spend money to lose more money in a way that would harm communities. After a long silence during which 30 staff members intently studied their feet, one brave soul explained to me that the mortgage bank was owned and run by a major Republican donor. Shocked, I said. 'I am a major Republican donor,' and pointing to my presidential cufflinks that were adorning my French cuffs, 'I got a pair of cuff links. You get cuff links. You don’t get $400 million of federal credit to throw down the drain.' My staff looked at me like I was so naive and clueless that there was no point in trying to communicate with me — better to let me learn the hard way."
These allegations of corruption and two-year criminal investigation caused then-Secretary
Andrew Cuomo to fire Hamilton Securities Group as HUD's financial advisory contractor.
[8]
Related legislation
★
1944 -
Servicemen's Readjustment Act PL 78-346
★
1949 - Housing Act PL 81-171
★
1950 - Housing Act PL 81-475
★
1951 - Defense Housing Act PL 82-139
★
1952 - 550 Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act PL 82-325,
★
1954 - Housing Act PL 83-560
★
1959 - Housing Act PL 86-372
★
1962 - Senior Citizens Housing Act PL 87-723
★
1965 - Housing and Urban Development Act PL 89-117
★
1965 - Department of Housing and Urban Development Act PL 89-174
★
1968 - Housing and Urban Development Act PL 90-448
★
1974 - Housing and Urban Development Act PL 93-383
★
1976 - Housing and Urban Development Act PL 94-375
★
1986 -
Tax Reform Act PL 99-514
★
★
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
★
1987 - Housing and Urban Development Act PL 100-242
★
1987 - McKinney Homeless Assistance Act PL 100-77
★
1989 - Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989
★
1990 - National Affordable Housing Act PL 101-625
★
1992 - Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act PL 102-550
See also
★
HUD USER
★
Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
★
Mortgage Discrimination
References
1. Little Hope in HUD's HOPE VI
2. HUD Scraps Cuomo Remedy for Harlem Housing Scandal
3. HUD: The Horror Movie
4. Housing Pledge by Cuomo Faces an Uncertain Future
5. NYC's 10 Worst Landlords
6. Gaffney's testimony documenting billion of undocumentable adjustments in fiscal 1998 and billion of undocumentable adjustments in fiscal 1999 [1].
7. HUD Is a Sewer
8. HUD's role in loans and how it can lose.(Q&A) Archibald, George
External links
★
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development Official Website
★
★
en Español
★
An overview of housing and urban revitalization
★
HUD USER
★
Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse
★
A report on corrupt behavior by HUD directors in California
★
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports regarding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
★
HUD's Mission and History
★
HUD User Policy Development and Research Information Service
★
FHA, HUD & the Mortgage Market Bubble
★
Corporation for Supportive Housing
★
AIDS Housing of Washington
★
National Alliance to End Homelessness
★
National Low Income Housing Coalition
★
FHA and HUD Credit Guidelines
★
Department Of Housing And Urban Development Meeting Notices and Rule Changes from The Federal Register
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