President-elect Obama has nominated Shaun Donovan to be the next HUD Secretary. Mr. Donovan currently serves as New York City’s housing commissioner, a position in which he is responsible for the City’s generally successful affordable housing development and preservation efforts. He is not responsible for the City’s homelessness policy, which has not been managed well – with a record number of homeless families now living in shelters, after the City cut back on available permanent housing opportunities for them under the misguided belief that fewer people would become homeless if fewer housing units were available for them.
We welcome this appointment, and look forward to working with Secretary Donovan. It is our hope and belief that the new Administration will commit to a broad anti-poverty agenda, one that will help reduce and eventually end homelessness.