HUD's Deputy Secretary Visits Region IX in San Francisco

Left to Right: Regional Administrator Ophelia Basgal, Deputy Secretary Jones and Veteran's Adminisrtation's (VA) Network Homeless Veterans Coordinator Roberta Rosenthal prepare to tour the construction site of Veterans Commons in San Francisco

Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones came to the Region IX San Francisco regional office on July 25, 2012 for his first official visit. Regional Administrator Ophelia Basgal and staff provided Deputy Secretary Jones a packed two days.

They had a meeting with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. Those days also included tours of a HUD's assisted housing and mixed-use development in the Yerba Buena area. It is a public housing development in San Francisco's Bay View district scheduled for redevelopment through the Choice Neighborhoods initiative.

They visited a veterans' project-based HUD-VASH housing facility that is under construction, called the Veterans Commons. He also heard about Region IX's greening efforts and accomplishments at an energy roundtable attended by HUD's stakeholders.

On the second day, Deputy Secretary Jones spoke at a roundtable for Regions VII and IX supervisors and managers and answered questions. He spoke about the agency's need for "Core Values," accomplishing organizational transformation in smaller more manageable phases than in the past, and improving customer service. He emphasized his strong commitment to the principle that an agency has to excel organizationally before it can excel programmatically. He also cautioned that the 2014 HUD budget was going to be smaller than previous budgets—more would have to be accomplished with less.

Deputy Secretary Jones provided answers to questions from Region IX employees.

Deputy Secretary Jones spoke at an "All Employee" Region IX meeting where he addressed some of his priority issues - similar to the issues that he raised in the supervisors' roundtable. He answered questions. Deputy Secretary Jones said that he was very impressed with the good work that HUD does every day. He saw it firsthand when he toured the community sites the previous day.

Deputy Secretary Jones was in Seattle before arriving in San Francisco. He said that the trips to the two regions were his first extended HUD official visits outside of Washington, D.C. Region IX was honored to welcome HUD's new deputy secretary, to give him the opportunity to learn about what we do, and to hear from him. We look forward to future visits.

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