By Eugene T. Lowe
May 25, 2009

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs May 12, considered three HUD nominees: Mercedes Marquez, who is slated to become the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development; Dr. Raphael Bostic, chosen as the next Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research; and Sandra Henriquez, who is to become the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing. The Committee hearing was chaired by Senator Jack Reed (RI) for Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (CT), who was on the Senate floor busy with credit card legislation that he sponsored.

Marquez, who was supported by The U.S. Conference of Mayors through a letter to the Committee, is the General Manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department. In that job, Marquez is responsible for the direction, development and implementation of citywide housing production and preservation programs in Los Angeles. Under her leadership, the Los Angeles Housing Department developed and maintained increased funding for an Affordable Housing Trust Fund, created the city’s first Moderate Income Home Buyer Program, and launched the Permanent Supportive Housing Program to house chronically homeless people.

Bostic is a professor at the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development. Teaching a variety of courses such as affordable housing development, urban economics, and real estate finance, Dr. Bostic has also studied the roles that credit markets, financing, and policy play in enhancing household access to economic and social amenities.

Henriquez has served as the Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston Housing Authority since 1996. She is a past president of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA). In prepared testimony to the Committee, Henriquez said, “I believe that housing is a right and that the provision of safe, decent, well-cared for units for low and very low income families lays the foundation to change lives.”