HUD's Donavan Speaks on Housing

Obama Town hall in New Orleans Oct. 15

Obama and Sasha at Jefferson Memorial

UPDATE Oct. 15: SEE VIDEO OF THE TOWN HALL HERE.

Note the time is Louisiana time (it's at 2:15 eastern). There will be live audio here.

Update: The president will arrive at Louis Armstrong International Airport at about 11:30 a.m. and likely travel by Interstate 10 to New Orleans, where he will stop about noon at Martin Luther King Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward. He will proceed to the University of New Orleans for a town hall meeting at 1:15 p.m. Shortly after 2 p.m., the president's entourage will return to the airport. NOLA

The town hall should be live streamed at cnn.com, msnbc.com or whitehouse.gov/live. I'll post details on time and place when they're up. In New Orleans...

With the president will be Secretaries Napolitano, Donovan, and Duncan, who "will each participate in events throughout the community to review recovery progress."

From New Orleans, POTUS heads to San Francisco for a DNC fundraiser that evening, and then Friday he flies to College Station, Texas, for a Presidential Forum on community service hosted by former President George H.W. Bush and the Points of Light Institute at the George Bush Presidential Library Center on the campus of Texas A&M University. Politico

Bobby Jindal will be on hand:

"The president's administration has achieved some truly great things in the short time since taking office," Landrieu said Thursday evening. "If this visit is too brief, it will not afford the president the opportunity to see first-hand the impact that an effective and committed administration can have on rebuilding neighborhoods and communities."
Earlier in the day, Vitter sent a letter to Obama, cautioning, "If the town hall is the only major event of the visit, I truly think it will be deeply disappointing to most citizens."

The White House Thursday evening indicated that plans for the president's trip are still being finalized, and would not confirm that a town hall was on the agenda, leaving open the possibility that a different and perhaps more extensive itinerary was in the works.

Regardless of the president's precise plans for his trip, Gov. Bobby Jindal's office said Thursday that he would be in New Orleans for the president's visit. So too will Reps. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, and Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson.
But Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, the only Democrat in the Louisiana House delegation, will not be in New Orleans with Obama.NOLA

Michael Bloomberg Talks About Obama

Here are some excerpts from Newsweek's interview with the NYC mayor:

President Obama has selected a superbly talented team, and I am not just saying that because many of them are from New York. (Though that doesn't hurt: Shaun Donovan, my former housing commissioner, was a brilliant choice for secretary of housing and urban development.) He hired first-rate public servants, including some of the finest minds in finance. Will Americans agree with Tim Geithner and Larry Summers on everything? Of course not. Finance has become like football—we all think we know better than the coach, and we all engage in Monday-morning quarterbacking. That's a healthy thing for a democracy: citizens should have opinions about economic policies. But as we battle our way out of the global recession, we could hardly ask for a more capable team than Geithner, Summers and Ben Bernanke. And the president, like the best head coaches, is directing the game plan but not drawing up every play.

Forget the low hanging fruit:

Is he looking for easy victories or taking on the toughest battles? Management gurus love to tell incoming executives to "pick the low-hanging fruit first." I couldn't disagree more. When I became mayor, my administration lived by the opposite maxim: do the hard things first. And so in year one, we raised property taxes, prohibited smoking in bars and restaurants and closed several firehouses to spread resources and manpower more effectively and efficiently. Mr. Popularity I was not, and my approval rating sank into the 20s. But here's what happened: we turned record budget deficits into record surpluses; improved services, including faster response times to fires; increased business in bars and restaurants; and grew the overall economy. And the public came to respect us for making the tough decisions.

I am certain that President Obama has heard from friends or advisers who tell him to hold off on tackling the really big issues. And it is incredibly encouraging that he seems to be ignoring them. He is moving to pass health-care reform—this year. In 1993, President Clinton made health-care reform an immediate priority, but the debate on the plan didn't begin in earnest until 1994, an election year. Everything is harder in an election year. The Obama administration has learned from that experience and is working closely with congressional leaders to expedite the legislation. What shape it will take is impossible to know. But the important thing is that the president is throwing down the gantlet and saying: "The time is now." And he's indicated that immigration and climate change will also be priorities. But can he actually pass any of this? And that brings us to the next question. Read the rest

Geithner Announces Crackdown on Foreclosure Rescue Scams

Visit makinghomeaffordable.gov for resources. Read more here.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Shaun Donovan on Face the Nation

Obama's Housing Plan a Howitzer

You wouldn't know it from the republican outcry but some say Obama's housing plan is a good one.

NPR: Some people in the mortgage industry think the president's plan is bigger and better than anything they've seen to date. Howard Glaser, an industry consultant and former Housing and Urban Development official in the Clinton administration, is one of them.

"For the last two years, the government has been employing a squirt gun to put out the forest fire in the housing market," Glaser says. "The Obama plan is a howitzer aimed at the problem, by contrast."

Flipping The Calculation

Glaser says previous government and bank plans designed to modify loans haven't worked because it made no financial sense to most of the parties involved.

Even if the borrower — the homeowner — could afford a lowered payment, Glaser says most investors weren't game because investors stood to make more money letting a home go into foreclosure and reselling it than working out a deal with the homeowner.

And the mortgage servicer — the company hired to administer the loan — faced a similar situation. Modifying a loan required more time and paperwork, so the servicer actually stood to lose money.

Obama's plan addresses these issues by throwing money at them, Glaser says. It will pay loan servicers to modify loans, and it essentially will subsidize modified mortgages. In other words, the government will kick in money to make sure homeowners pay no more than 31 percent of monthly income — whether it's less in interest, or less in the principal loan amount.

"It flips the calculation, and in the vast majority of cases will make it a better deal for the investor to modify the loan than seek foreclosure," Glaser says. "That economic driver is everything."

Here's another who thinks the plan is a good one and yet another, who likes some aspects of the plan.
Shaun Donovan, HUD secretary:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama Picks Ron Sims for Deputy HUD

Ron Sims appears to be well-liked in progressive circles, which means we'll have someone who actually cares about affordable housing. Here's his bio.

NW Progressive: As Deputy Secretary, Ron Sims will be the No. 2 man at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, working for Secretary Shaun Donovan. Sims will be in charge of HUD's day to day operations. The Department's annual budget is about $39 billion and it has 8,500 employees.

Seattle Times: Sims announced Monday he is going to Washington, D.C., intending to take a job as deputy secretary, No. 2, at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He needs Senate confirmation.

Rumors of his departure have been swirling for months. A lot of people around here are fed up with him for one reason or another. But I say D.C.'s gain is our considerable loss. Sims has undeniable leadership qualities that will be missed.

He is not afraid to take stands that aggravate colleagues in government. In 2007, he changed his mind late in the game on a very expensive and poorly thought-out road-and-transit spending plan. In doing so, he violated accepted Northwest process for challenging groupthink and took a ton of flak for it. In the end, I thought it took real guts to stand up and say, on second thought, he opposed the plan. Voters agreed with him.

Sims is a big-picture guy. He is a passionate booster of mass transit and environmental policies. The son of a preacher from Spokane, he is easily the best public speaker in our region, which means he can articulate a vision and persuade others to follow.

Sims statement today:

STATEMENT OF RON SIMS REGARDING
NOMINATION TO BECOME DEPUTY SECRETARY OF HUD

February 2, 2009

President Barack Obama today announced his intent to nominate me as the next Deputy Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. I thank the President for this honor. I am deeply grateful and overwhelmed by his trust and confidence in me.

I also want to thank Secretary Shaun Donovan for his support. If confirmed by the United States Senate, I will serve the President and give his administration and our country my very best.

I want to thank the citizens of King County who have given me the opportunity to serve 12 years as County Executive and 11 years as Councilmember. I cannot imagine anyone more fortunate than I to have spent the better part of my public service career working on issues I care about in a region that I love.

Leaving King County government will be very difficult for me. In my mind and heart, I see and feel the work that needs to be done to complete the transformation of this region into the best place in the world.
Nearly a year ago, the Seattle Times ran my editorial announcing King County’s Equity and Social Justice Initiative. In that editorial I reminded us all that four decades after the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we remain a society burdened by vast disparities in wealth, in health and in opportunity. Not just in this country, but
also in our county; the only one in America named after Dr. King.
I wrote with regret that “the gulf between the rich and the poor is widening…” and that “while many of our communities are thriving, others foster conditions that lead to poor health, underemployment, poor education, incarceration, loss of opportunity and unsafe living.”
I lamented that decades of misguided policies at the federal, state and local level have contributed to the problem; policies that have isolated the poorest urban neighborhoods from economic opportunities, and disenfranchised communities trying to do better.
Read more

Obama's Weekly Address Dec. 13 Announces Shaun Donovan

Obama makes a cabinet announcement for HUD via video.  
Donovan is Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. 

To that end, the President-elect has selected Shaun Donovan to be his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Mr. Donovan, a former Comissioner of Housing Preservation and Development in New York City, will come to Washington with the innovative ideas and new perspective needed to help the thousands of hard-working American families whose livelihoods have been threatened during this tough economic time.

NYT Profile:

Will bring to the job: Extensive experience with housing issues, learned in the pressure cooker of New York City, where he has been heading the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Since taking the position in 2004, he has focused on the ambitious goal of building more low- and moderate-income housing in New York City while navigating the web of interests, including landlords, developers and lenders, who all have a stake in the outcome. He also has experience in HUD, where he served as deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing in the Clinton administration, managing a multibillion-dollar housing subsidy program that served 1.7 million people annually.

Is linked to Mr. Obama by: His work on the Obama campaign. Mr. Donovan took a leave of absence from his job in New York, with the mayor’s permission, to campaign for Mr. Obama.