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70 has come to be called "workforce housing," for firemen, policemen, teachers, nurses, trying to locate them in central areas near employment centers and keep it in the middle band of pricing. We started doing that in 2000, and it morphed into what we now call CityView when major capital sources starting investing in this kind of housing. We're one of the principal groups in the country that's building that kind of urban housing. We've built about 80 projects in 12 states across the country. We're principally focused on rental housing now, and the bulk of our projects now are in California. What is your role with the Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America's Families? I'm a member of the executive committee. ere are four of us, all of whom have housing backgrounds, and all of whom have served in government. ere are two Democrats and two Republicans. (Former) Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts and (former) Congressman (Rick) Lazio of New York being the Republicans, and Nic Retsinas, who was head of FHA, and myself being the Democrats. In addition, there is an ad- visory panel that includes another 10 or so major housing figures. My role is to help my friend, Ron Terwilliger, achieve his objective, which is to raise the attention in the country to the need for affordable housing, both rental and home- ownership for Americans. ere are dramatic gaps in the number of people who can afford the housing stock that's being built. ey're crowded, and they're spending too much of their monthly budget on housing. It has emerged as a serious national problem, called the "silent crisis" because not enough attention has been drawn to it. I agree that the profile needs to be raised. I have observed, as a mayor, as a HUD secretary, and in my housing business, that if you can't get people into decent housing, then all the other things we want to do for them become more difficult – going to school, performing in school, getting a job, developing the skills to improve one's capacity, having the stability to keep a family secure and stable. All of those require the platform that is a decent home, and if people don't have it, then it becomes very difficult to make progress in life. We have not sufficiently aligned housing, or linked housing, to the inequality debate, to the shrinking of the middle class, to the difficulty of poor people getting a leg up and moving upward. We emphasize a lot of things appropriately – education, job training, the economy – but right at the center of the equation, right at the heart of the bullseye, is a decent place to live. So that makes finding decent housing a top priority. It does make it a priority, and we pay a lot attention to housing in the country. ere are a lot of organizations, and banks, and financial companies, and a big infrastructure that the public doesn't always acknowledge how critical it is so that we can do the things we need to do as government. So we can understand when communications need to be made and budgets need to be made to provide some decent housing. What are some of the things you're most proud of having accomplished during your four years as HUD Secretary? A couple of things. One, we worked hard at trying to understand the layers that contribute to homelessness. We can do a better job in our country of getting people off the streets. I'm very proud that in the intervening years, we've actually reduced the amount of chronic homelessness. In many cities, we're nearing the end of veteran homelessness. We literally can say we've got the systems in place to deal with the annual increases in veteran homelessness and put people in the proper treatment systems so we can manage it. Just like full employment – you don't have to have every single person employed every moment, because they're fictional unemployment. So we call 4 percent co-employment, we're getting to that point with veteran homelessness. Now, within sight, is the ability to do that for homelessness at large. I'm also proud of the fact that we contributed to the renovation of the worst public housing developments in the country under a program called Hope Six. Two hundred and fifty-four of the worst public housing developments in the country came down and were replaced by something that was much more livable, respectable to the people who live there, that creates the opportunity for income, integration so people can live together and learn from people who work every day, and that was important. Finally, I think I'm proud of the fact that we identified homeownership for what it is – the pathway to the middle class in our country. Always has been, always will be. We were able to increase the homeownership rate. Obviously, that pride of mine is balanced by the fact that we had a housing recession in the 2000s and we lost some of those gains in homeownership, and some would even say the efforts to increase homeownership got hijacked by Wall Street and others that were promoting abusive practices, predatory lending, without concern for what the implications would be in communities in the housing field and housing market. But I think the intent was correct and we should learn something from it and not repeat the worst of those experience going forward – but xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here xxx need pull quote here

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