MARGARET SALAZAR NAMED FIELD OFFICE DIRECTOR FOR HUD IN OREGON

PORTLAND - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Regional Administrator Bill Block today announced the appointment of Margaret S. Salazar as Director of HUD's Portland Field Office. She succeeds Robin Prichard who retired at the end of June.

"We welcome Margaret back home to the Northwest and know that she will do much to maintain and enhance the outstanding partnerships we have with local governments, housing authorities, tribes and non-profit and for-profit housing providers in Oregon," Block said. "Her breadth of experience in housing will serve us well as we advance our many missions, from promoting homeownership to ending homelessness, from producing and preserving affordable housing to helping communities large and small across Oregon meet their most critical community, economic and housing development needs."

Ms. Salazar has been with HUD since 2006 when she joined the Department in San Francisco as a Presidential Management Fellow. Most recently she has served as Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for Affordable Housing Preservation in which capacity she has overseen the preservation and re-capitalization of thousands of HUD-assisted rental housing units through HUD's Mark-to-Market and, since 2012, its Rental Assistance Demonstration Initiative. Prior to joining HUD, she worked with a number of non-profit housing organizations in northern California including the Common Counsel Foundation in Oakland. She also worked in the offices of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and the Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco.

A native of Hood River, Oregon Ms. Salazar attended Lincoln High School in Portland and is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley.

HUD's field office in Portland is a full-service office with some 50 full-time staff from most of the Department's program areas including Community Planning & Development, Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity, Public & Indian Housing, Office of Multi-Family Housing and Field Policy & Management. During Federal fiscal year 2013, HUD endorsed some 15,000 FHA-insured single-family mortgages, provided rental subsidies to almost 62,500 households and provided more than $300 million in formula and competitive grants to 22 public housing authorities, 15 local and state governments, 9 tribes, 426 privately-owned rental complexes and more than 100 community-based projects serving the homeless.

###

HUD's mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes: utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and transform the way HUD does business. More information about HUD and its programs is available on the Internet at www.hud.gov and http://espanol.hud.gov. You can also follow HUD on twitter @HUDGov, on facebook at www.facebook.com/HUD, or sign up for news alerts on HUD's Email List.