APARTMENT ADVOCATE
NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION
Obama Taps Castro to Lead HUD
W
National Convention – the same
role where President Obama himself highlighted his formidable
speaking skills in 2004 as a thenIllinois senator before running for
president four years later.
ashington has been
buzzing with news
involving the nation’s most powerful
housing bureaucrat with President
Obama nominating San Antonio
Mayor Julian Castro to become
HUD secretary. He would replace
current HUD Secretary Shaun
Donovan who Obama has named
Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Many experts are saying that
Donovan will continue to influence
federal housing policy in numerous
ways as head of OMB.
According to numerous reports,
part of the reason Castro has been
chosen to lead HUD is to help polish his political
skills when it comes to “the issues of poverty and
to raise his appeal” among the left in preparation
for the 2016 presidential race. He is widely considered one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars
and has been mentioned frequently as a potential
vice presidential running mate for Hillary Clinton.
This should come as no surprise given Castro
served as the keynote speaker at the Democratic
“Shaun Donovan going to OMB
is perhaps an opportunity to educate the office on how HUD programs work,” said Denise Muha, Executive Director of the National Leased Housing Association.
She provides the often complicated Section 8
rental assistance program as an example.
However, unlike Donovan who had hefty
housing credentials prior to becoming HUD secretary, critics contend that Castro has no practical
experience in housing although he is clearly a
rising political star on the national stage.
CHAMBERS DIFFER ON VITAL
MILITARY HOUSING BENEFIT;
HOUSE DEFIES WHITE HOUSE
The House has openly defied the Obama Administration’s plans to roll back military compensation by broadly rejecting the Department of
Defense (DoD) proposal to slow the growth of
the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) – a
vital military housing benefit – in its defense
spending bill for FY 2015. This move by the House
is notably different from the Senate’s legislation,
which would move forward with changes to the
program, limiting increases to below the rate of
inflation.
A BAH reduction could seriously jeopardize
military housing by increasing out-of-pocket costs
for service members, and negatively impact housing options and real estate investments serving
the military. Ultimately, the House bill deferred
consideration of compensation matters until a
related comprehensive review is completed in
February 2015. NAA/NMHC were successful in
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