Promising a prominent role for his housing department, President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named a Harvard-educated architect to lead an agency dealing with the mortgage mess that dragged the country into a recession.
With one in 10 U.S. homeowners delinquent on mortgage payments or in foreclosure, Obama said New York City housing commissioner Shaun Donovan will bring "fresh thinking, unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas" at the Housing and Urban Development Department to help resolve the housing and economic crisis.
"We can't keep throwing money at the problem, hoping for a different result," Obama said during his weekend radio address. "We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new, efficient style of leadership. We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities just won't do."
Donovan, head of the New York's Housing Preservation and Development Department, is former Clinton administration HUD official with a national reputation for curtailing low-income foreclosures, developing affordable housing and managing the nation's largest housing plan.
Home Page
Share
