Whither HUD

As Obama prepares to redefine how America is governed, some have been asking how the new Department of Housing and Urban Development should be defined.

HUD itself is an organization with multiple commitments – to prevent poverty, to provide shelter.  It appears to be concerned with cities, yet it oversees the most rural of all housing elements – the manufactured home.

One provocative idea is to eliminate HUD altogether.  The author’s logic is that the unstated purpose of HUD is to gentrify the urban core, and that this goal is misguided.

There are other well-known issues with HUD.  Not the least of these are crises in recent years with corruption.

If HUD was shuttered, then presumably new institutions would be created to respond to the multiple endeavors that HUD pursues.  This might include an office for urban planning, another for poverty, and another for Housing.

The regulation and management of manufactured housing could fit into the Housing section.

Obama’s urban background suggests that his approach to HUD could be different than just about any other US President in the last 100 years.  There is no recent example of a President who was such a city dweller.  While some have come from suburbs (Nixon, Reagan, Hoover), others have favored a rural background (Carter, Bush II, LBJ), a small town (Eisenhower, Truman), or a vacation environ (Bush I, Kennedy).