Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros Endorses Andrew Cuomo for Mayor, Citing Proven Record of Building Affordable Housing
Andrew is a builder. He is goal-oriented and sees things to completion, which is evident from his housing successes at HUD and as Governor. He has proven at every stop in his career that he is a houser, a term ascribed in the housing profession to those who build housing because they understand that every hope we have for personal progress for people – in education, skills development, work, security, well-being and mental health – begins with a safe place to live.
- Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros
On the afternoon that I was nominated by President Clinton to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, I started studying resumes of people who would be capable leaders for the Assistant Secretary positions in the Department. One name that was recommended multiple times was Andrew Cuomo. I had known of Andrew’s work as the founder of HELP, one of the largest and most effective homelessness service providers in New York City. Andrew also had experience developing affordable housing through another organization he had helped create, Genesis Homes in East New York in Brooklyn. He had also built an affordable complex in Manhattan.
I knew of these important efforts, but I was still surprised that HUD would be the place where Andrew would want to serve. I assumed that if Andrew wanted to serve in the Clinton Administration it would be in one of the more prestigious departments: as a New Yorker from the financial capital of the world, perhaps the Treasury Department, or as a lawyer, the Justice Department.
I learned that Andrew had only one place he wanted to work and that was the position that addresses homelessness and community-based housing. Over the next few weeks Andrew rose to the top of the contenders to be Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development (CPD). I particularly respected that at a young age he had personally led the creation of homeless programs and affordable developments, literally with his own hands. His knowledge of housing was not something he had read in a book or observed from 30,000 feet shepherding a budget in Albany. His experience was at the street level seeing the real-life implications of affordable housing for people in dire need of a decent place to live, a safe place for their children to put their heads on a pillow at night.
The decision to designate Andrew as Assistant Secretary was one of the best personnel selections I made. For the next four years we worked hand-in-glove. We met or spoke almost every day, and it was as if I had a number two leader standing beside me concerning the highest priorities of HUD. We both felt that addressing homelessness was a basic commitment. A wise counselor once told me: “The first job of the Secretary of the department whose name begins with the word HOUSING should be to help those Americans who are completely unhoused.” Andrew developed the concept of “Continuum of Care”, a step-by-step advancement of unhoused people from sleeping on the streets to health care, social supports, anti-addiction treatments, and to a safe and warm place to live. Since CPD was also responsible for the development of housing in communities across the nation, Andrew set up systems to assure that federal housing dollars through block grants to cities and through the HOME program would result in the maximum number of rental units and homeownership opportunities possible.
Perhaps the greatest indicator of Andrew’s future leadership abilities came when HUD was under siege after the “Contract with America” victory that resulted in a Republican Congress and in Newt Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House. The “Contract” called for the elimination of several federal departments and HUD was clearly on the chopping block. Our HUD leadership team organized a Saturday retreat to plan a defensive response. But after our internal work session had been set, I was called to Missouri by Republican Senator Christopher Bond that weekend to address emergency conditions at a housing development in Kansas City. We agreed that Andrew would moderate the HUD leadership brainstorming session in my absence. The result was a coherent, sensible, and comprehensive plan for what HUD ought to be. It took us from defense to offense, designing a perfectly reasonable, bipartisan blueprint for the national department entrusted with housing Americans. From that plan came initiatives like Empowerment Zones which Andrew championed and a renewed emphasis on boosting the production of affordable housing in order to increase the supply.
It was an easy choice for President Clinton to appoint Andrew to be Secretary of HUD when I moved on. He sponsored pioneering housing initiatives as Secretary, resulting in HUD becoming more community-oriented, supporting efforts from the ground up and not Washington-centric top down. I know this focus was the result of Andrew’s grassroots experience forming HELP and Genesis and working with dedicated housers at the block and project level.
Andrew later put the insights he gained in eight years at HUD to work as Governor of New York. He backed his ideas with funding for production of affordable housing, for tenant protections, and for homeless programs. His plan to build or preserve affordable housing units has resulted in tens of thousands of affordable homes. He worked on Mitchell-Lama preservation, on public housing upgrades at the New York Housing Authority, and on the creation of rent supportive housing.
Andrew is a builder. He is goal-oriented and sees things to completion, which is evident from his housing successes at HUD and as Governor. He has proven at every stop in his career that he is a houser, a term ascribed in the housing profession to those who build housing because they understand that every hope we have for personal progress for people – in education, skills development, work, security, well-being and mental health – begins with a safe place to live.
New York City is at this very moment experiencing the fortunate convergence of the right person being in the right place at the right time – Andrew Cuomo running for Mayor – to deal with one of the most pressing problems confronting New York City, sustaining a supply of affordable housing. New York’s full recovery from the pandemic requires affordable housing. The success of New York’s retail streetscape requires affordable housing. New York’s role as the financial capital of the world entails a young workforce that requires affordable housing. New York’s quality of life for residents of all ages and incomes is improved when there is ample affordable housing.
Andrew Cuomo can be a mayor who, because of his experience in executive leadership and his natural drive to work 24/7, can solve a lot of problems that confront America’s greatest city. On top of that, he can also be the houser New York needs.
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