Heard at HUD

HUD Shakeup Hits 10% Of Workers
   A sizable reorganization of HUD ’s 80 field offices will affect more than 900 HUD employees and shrink the number of Multifamily Office locations from 50 down to 10 offices reporting to five Multifamily Hubs. The department will shutter 16 of its 80 field offices as well.
posted 4/24/13 6:48 PM  read complete story

HUD Girds For Sequestration
   If federal spending is slashed by 5% across-the-board March 1, HUD is preparing to reduce its administration capacity by 20% to meet the demand. In an internal memo obtained by HAL, the department’s executives are scouring contracts, grants and other forms of spending to determine what will be cut or eliminated.
posted 2/15/13 10:06 AM  read complete story

Administration Pushback On Mortgage Decision
   Obama administration officials, scrambling to find the right strategy for putting a more favorable face on its faltering mortgage rescue program, decry the decision by Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco to prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from reducing principals on troubled mortgages
posted 8/3/12 11:48 AM  read complete story

Donovan Fights Mortgage Fires
   As the spirit of the $25 billion mortgage fraud settlement begins to wane, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, the chief architect of the settlement, is beating the bushes to keep states from absconding with settlement money to help plug general budget gaps. Money from the
posted 5/18/12 10:01 AM  read complete story

Patriarch’s HUD Legacy Threatened
   If former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has his way, HUD would become history after a half century in business, four years of which saw Romney’s father, George Romney, at HUD’s helm.
posted 4/17/12 2:03 PM  read complete story

Jones Takes Seat Vacant 7 Months
   In a calculated congressional move, Maurice A. Jones becomes HUD’s second-in-command seven months after Deputy Secretary Ron Sims quit suddenly to return to his Washington state home base.
posted 4/3/12 1:50 PM  read complete story

Donovan New Administration Darling
   HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan had been in the Obama administration’s political doghouse early last year, unable to get HUD’s mortgage rescue initiatives off the ground and beset with internal strife, a senior executive exodus and plunging department morale.
posted 2/23/12 4:33 PM  read complete story

(HUD REORGANIZATION) HUD Farms Out Transformation Effort
   Unable to pull together a plan to transform HUD operations in the past three years, department officials decide to award a private contractor the responsibility under a five-year, $17 million contract that began last August. HUD sources tell HAL that the
posted 1/6/12 11:45 AM  read complete story

(HUD DEPUTY SECRETARY) Jones Seen As HUD Morale Linchpin
   Deputy HUD secretary nominee Maurice Jones clears the Senate Banking Committee, and the fate of his appointment now rests with a full Senate bogged down in wrangling over taxes and spending. The delay is taking a toll on department morale, already near bottom among
posted 12/15/11 4:06 PM  read complete story

(STORM AID DILEMMA) HUD Hurricane Aid Dilemma
   Who's in charge at HUD? That's the question bandied around department offices in the wake of Hurricane Irene. While lower level HUD officials and regional offices are assembling information on the status of public and
posted 9/2/11 10:30 AM  read complete story