Department of Housing and Urban Development

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), executive department of the United States government, responsible for programs concerned with housing needs and with the improvement and development of urban areas. It was created by Congress in 1965. HUD is administered by a secretary who is appointed by the president with the approval of the Senate and who is a member of the cabinet.

HUD carries out research programs in areas such as public housing improvements, housing finance issues, and proposed tax changes. It provides for antidiscrimination in housing activities and aid to neighborhood rehabilitation. It absorbed the programs of public housing, urban renewal, urban planning assistance, and public facilities of the old Housing and Home Finance Agency, as well as the mortgage insurance programs of the now-defunct Federal Housing Administration. In addition it assumed responsibility for the new programs launched under the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965, which includes a rent-supplements program to encourage private enterprise to construct desirable housing for low-income families. Loans, grants, and technical assistance are channeled through state and local governments, community organizations, and private and nonprofit sponsors.

At present the functions of HUD may be grouped into six major categories. Housing programs include facilitating the production of new and rehabilitated housing; conserving and preserving existing homes; insuring mortgages for single-family and multifamily housing and loans for home improvement and the purchase of manufactured (mobile) homes; providing housing subsidies for low- and moderate-income families; and making direct loans to construct or rehabilitate housing projects for the elderly and the disabled.

Community Development Block Grants provide monetary grants to carry out a wide range of community development activities. This program consolidates a number of earlier programs, such as Model Cities, urban renewal, and sewage treatment. Supplemental Assistance for Facilities to Assist the Homeless and other programs were established to house the indigent.

Public and Native American housing programs are involved with the financing, production, and maintenance of low-income public housing and with providing housing that meets the requirements of Native American and native Alaskan communities. Fair housing and equal opportunity programs oversee policies affecting civil rights in housing and community development.

The Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), called Ginnie Mae, is a government corporation charged with increasing the money available for mortgage loans. GNMA does this by providing the means to channel funds from the securities and other financial markets into the mortgage market.

See also City Planning; Housing.