(from the National Low Income Housing Coalition) President Obama announced on April 17 his intention to nominate Mercedes Márquez to be the HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development (CPD).
Ms. Márquez has been the General Manager of the City of Los Angeles Housing Department since 2004. Ms. Márquez also served as the Senior Counsel to HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and as HUD's Deputy General Counsel for Civil Rights and Fair Housing during the Clinton administration, where she worked on fair lending and fair housing enforcement and on rural housing and economic development policy, according to the White House press release.
In the private sector, Ms. Márquez worked for McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc., a nationwide housing development firm, and was a partner at Litt & Márquez, where she practiced public interest litigation.
HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) administers the McKinney-Vento homeless assistance programs; Community Development Block Grants (CDBG); HOME; Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP); Rural Housing and Economic Development; and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), among other programs.
This office also administers the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) formula grants established by 2008's Housing and Economic Recovery Act and this year's funds from the $787 billion stimulus bill for the $2 billion second round of NSP competitive grants and the $1.5 billion of Homelessness Prevention Funds.
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In continuing efforts to increase access to supportive housing for high utilizers of public health resources, and maximize the efficient use of scarce public resources, City and County Departments issued the first collaborative Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) last month.
