NEWS HEADLINES

L.A. Mayor Names Pick for Housing Post

By Donna Kimura

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced Doug Guthrie as his pick to become the general manager of the city's Housing Department.

Guthrie has extensive experience in affordable housing, most recently serving as president of Kimball Hill Urban Centers in Chicago, where he built mixed-income and mixed-use projects in challenged urban communities.

Kimball Hill Urban was a subsidiary of Kimball Hill Homes, which filed for bankruptcy and shut down in 2008 amid the housing and financial crisis.

Guthrie was also the inaugural president of the National Equity Fund in 1989 and was also deputy executive director and COO at the Chicago Housing Authority from 1987 to 1989. He has also held several positions with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

L.A.'s former housing general manager, Mercedes Marquez, left earlier this year to become HUD's assistant secretary for community planning and development.