Mayor Julián Castro, 39, of San Antonio, is expected to be nominated as the new HUD secretary. (Deborah Cannon / NYT)
On Saturday several media outlets, including the New York Times and Washington Post, reported that President Barack Obama plans to nominate HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to replace Sylvia Mathews Burwell as director of the Office of Management and Budget in a cabinet shuffle later this week.
The president is expected to select Julián Castro as the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Castro is currently mayor of San Antonio and, if confirmed, would be the second mayor of the Texas city to serve as HUD secretary, following in the footsteps of Henry Cisneros, who was the first secretary of HUD in the Clinton administration.
John Henneberger, co-director of the Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service, was quoted as saying:
Mayor Castro is the son of a civil rights activist, comes from a family of recent immigrants, and leads a city where widespread poverty and inequality are the defining challenges. He has worked effectively in San Antonio to expand opportunity in housing, overcome neighborhood segregation, and create more jobs for lower-skilled workers. At a time when we desperately need focus, energy, and leadership from HUD to take on inequality and fair housing, it seems to me Julián Castro is an exciting choice.
Last month the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) reported that PIH Assistant Secretary Sandra Henriquez will be leaving HUD at the end of June.
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