Donovan Touts Rental Housing, Sustainability Commitments

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Secretary Shaun Donovan have had a productive February bolstering their commitment to both rental housing and sustainable housing and communities.

During Washington, D.C.’s “Snowmageddon,” Donovan took time out to talk with Affordable Housing Finance Deputy Editor Donna Kimura about the proposed HUD fiscal year 2011 budget as well as some other agency priorities.

Donovan emphasized that the administration continues to place a strong focus on affordable rental housing, pointing to the budget proposal’s full funding of project-based Sec. 8 and a $1 billion commitment to the National Housing Trust Fund.

“It demonstrates that there’s a different kind of partner at the federal level that’s committed to rental housing as a fundamental strategy in the wake of a crisis that ought to make us all step back and reassert that we need a balanced housing policy in this country,” he said. “We need to be focused not just on homeownership but also on rental housing.”

And earlier in the month, Donovan announced the launch of HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, which will be overseen by Deputy Secretary Ron Sims and under the management of Director Shelley Poticha.

This new sustainable office will work with the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as other federal agencies to “begin to tie the quality and location of housing to broader opportunities such as access to good jobs, quality schools, and safe streets,” said Donovan. The office also plans to strengthen HUD’s Energy Efficient Mortgage product and the agency’s other energy retrofit financing options for both single-family and multifamily through a $50 million Energy Innovation fund.

Both rental housing and sustainability have been toward the top of Donovan’s priority list since being named HUD secretary. The HUD leadership should be commended for continuing to follow through on these initiatives.