The United States Department of Housing and Urban development is a cabinet department in the executive branch of the United States Federal government and is also abbreviated to HUD. Founded in 1965, the department was part of the “Great Society” program of President Lyndon Johnson and aimed to develop and execute policies on housing and cities. The actual implementation of the department and the law took place in 1966 after the completion of a special study group report on the role of the Federal Government in solving urban problems.

• HUD is administered by the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Shaun Donovan, an ex-New York City housing commissioner and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, is the existing Secretary, having been confirmed by the United States Senate unanimously on January 22, 2009. HUD has also established special zones called enterprise Zones which aim to boost the economy in depressed urban areas.
• The major program offices of HUD are community planning and development, Housing, Public and Indian housing, Policy Development and research, Government national association (Ginnie Mae), Healthy homes and Lead Hazard control, and Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing. The functions of the above mentioned offices can range from providing community planning and development to hazard control.
• The 203(k) program gives inexpensive loans to permit low-income participants or non-profit groups to purchase and refurbish a residence. A scandal with the program occurred in the 1990’s in which at least 700 houses were traded for profit by real estate speculators taking the loans; at least 19 were arrested and the situation distressed the housing market in Brooklyn and Harlem and &70 million in the form of HUD loans went into default.
• One of the most successful programs of HUD is the Multifamily Housing Service Coordinator Program. Since 1992 every tear HYD has incorporated in its Notice of Fund Availability (NOFA), an explicit allotment of dollars to let sponsors and owners of HUD multifamily housing for the elderly the chance to hire a Service Coordinator. The Service Coordinator gives case management and coordinative services to aged residents, predominantly to those who are “frail” and “at-risk” letting them to stay in their present residence. As a result, thousands of senior citizens all over the United States have been given the chance to maintain living without help instead of in an institutional facility such as a nursing home.

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