Press Release - Readout of Secretary-designate Marcia Fudge's Meeting with the National Housing Conference

Housing and Urban Development Secretary-designate Marcia Fudge participated in a virtual listening session with more than 30 leading housing organizations who shared their priorities for the upcoming year and ways in which they hoped to work alongside the Biden-Harris administration.

Secretary-designate Fudge highlighted her background in public service, having served at the federal, state and local level throughout her career, and emphasized the ways in which government can work with on-the-ground partners to serve all populations, including the most disadvantaged. Secretary-designate Fudge and participants discussed a range of topics, including quickly and effectively responding to the impacts of COVID-19 on homeowners and renters and ensuring that evictions moratoriums and mortgage forbearance are in place so those hardest hit by the pandemic can remain in their homes. They also discussed the need to address the affordable housing crisis and ways in which the administration can begin to tackle this issue.

In addition, Secretary-designate Fudge and the participants discussed their shared priority of racial equity and how the administration can level the playing field including by addressing the homeownership gap, expanding access to credit for communities of color, closing the housing affordability gap and re-establishing fair housing policies. The group also stressed strengthening critical HUD programs including the FHA which provides critical assistance for potential homebuyers and addressing the nation's persistent homelessness problem.

The participants and Secretary-designate Fudge shared their enthusiasm for working together and promised to keep an open line of communication to continue discussing ways to meet the needs of the American people in this moment of crisis and beyond.

Secretary-designate Fudge was joined in the meeting by:

• National Housing Conference
• AARP
• Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition
• California Housing Consortium
• Consumer Federation of America
• Consumer Home Lenders Association
• Eden Housing
• Furman Center at NYU
• Habitat for Humanity International
• Homeownership Alliance/NCST
• Housing Assistance Council
• Housing Partnership Network
• Housing Policy Council
• Manufactured Housing Institute
• Mortgage Bankers Association
• National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders
• National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
• National Association of Home Builders
• National Association of Real Estate Brokers
• National Association of REALTORS
• National Council of State Housing Agencies
• National Housing Resource Center
• National Housing Trust
• National Leased Housing Association
• National Low-Income Housing Coalition
• National Multifamily Housing Council
• National NeighborWorks Association
• Neighborworks America/NNA
• New York Housing Conference
• SIFMA
• SKA Marin
• Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future
• Tennessee Housing Development Agency
• Terwilliger Center for Housing at the Urban Land Institute
• U.S. Mortgage Insurers