Julian Castro in Obama Cabinet members actions and issues


On Budget & Economy: Too-tight credit market hurts minority home ownership

We finally fulfilled the full obligation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act by putting into practice the Affirmatively Furthering Communities of Color Homeownership must be an affordable option within reach of all credit-qualified Americans, particularly young adults and communities of color who have historically experienced tighter credit markets. While there is no question that credit markets needed to be reformed following the market collapse of the Great Recession, the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction. For example: the African American homeownership rate has fallen 6.7 percentage points to 43 percent; the Hispanic homeownership rate has fallen 2.5 percentage points to 45.6 percent; and the white homeownership rate has fallen 4.0 percentage points to 71.9 percent. If we are to reverse this trend in a responsible manner, FHA must continue to be a key source of support for low- and moderate-income and first-time homebuyers.
Source: HUD.gov Cabinet Exit Memo for Obama Cabinet biographies Jan 5, 2017

On Environment: At HUD: $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition

When natural disasters struck, as with Superstorm Sandy in the Northeast, the historic flooding in Louisiana, and many other major disasters-- HUD helped the hardest-hit communities to rebuild, cumulatively investing more than $18 billion in those areas, and making it possible for folks to get back in their homes and back to work. And when we invested those dollars, we encouraged communities not just to rebuild, but to rebuild in more resilient ways. The $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition demonstrated our commitment to encourage communities to build infrastructure that can better withstand the next storm and reduce the costs to the American taxpayer.
Source: HUD.gov Cabinet Exit Memo for Obama Cabinet biographies Jan 5, 2017

On Environment: More funding for lead-safe regulations in low-income housing

With HUD's "Lead-Free Homes, Lead-Free Kids" toolkit, we have laid out a path for strengthening protections against lead poisoning. The centerpiece of these actions will be our efforts to immediately help young children with dangerous blood lead levels. Looking ahead at how we can end childhood lead poisoning, we strongly recommend that Congress greatly increase funding for the lead hazard grant program--the largest effort toward remediating lead paint hazards in low-income homes in our nation--at a level that would eliminate this public health problem. In order to achieve this goal, Congress must give HUD the authority, along with the necessary funding, to require landlords of housing receiving tenant-based rental assistance to follow the same strict lead-safe regulations as landlords of housing receiving project-based rental assistance.
Source: HUD.gov Cabinet Exit Memo for Obama Cabinet biographies Jan 5, 2017

On Welfare & Poverty: ConnectHome: make HUD the Department of Opportunity

Every year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) creates opportunity for more than 30 million Americans, including more than 11.6 million children. That support ranges from assisting someone in critical need with emergency shelter for a night to helping more than 7.8 million homeowners build intergenerational wealth. Simply put, HUD provides a passport to the middle class. HUD is many things but, most of all, it is the Department of Opportunity. Everything we did in the last eight years was oriented to bring greater opportunity to the people we serve every day. That includes the thousands of public housing residents who now have access to high-speed Internet through ConnectHome. It includes the more than 1.2 million borrowers in 2016--more than 720,000 of them firsttime homebuyers--who reached their own American Dream because of the access to credit the Federal Housing Administration provides.
Source: HUD.gov Cabinet Exit Memo for Obama Cabinet biographies Jan 5, 2017

The above quotations are from Obama Cabinet members actions and issues.
Click here for other excerpts from Obama Cabinet members actions and issues.
Click here for other excerpts by Julian Castro.
Click here for a profile of Julian Castro.
Please consider a donation to OnTheIssues.org!
Click for details -- or send donations to:
1770 Mass Ave. #630, Cambridge MA 02140
E-mail: submit@OnTheIssues.org
(We rely on your support!)

Page last updated: May 20, 2021