HUD Archives: News Releases

LATEST HUD REINVENTION "HAMMER" AWARDS TOUTED AS AGENCY OPENS NEW STOREFRONT OFFICE

WASHINGTON - As the Department of Housing and Urban Development opens the first of its "Storefront" offices, the Clinton Administration announced today that fourteen teams of agency employees will win Hammer awards for innovative and money-saving efforts in support of the Vice President's "reinventing government" initiative.

"I applaud HUD's work to make its services more accessible to all Americans," said Vice President Al Gore. "These common-sense reinvention efforts will bring better services to local communities across the country."

The Vice President's National Partnership For Reinventing Government will present the Hammer Awards later this month. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo called the announcement a credit to innovative HUD employees and their new ideas being put into action under the Department's HUD 2020 Management Reform efforts.

"Dedicated employees have put us well on the way to creating a new HUD, one that is working better than ever to serve communities," Cuomo said. Commending the Vice President's reinvention initiative, Secretary Cuomo said, "By recognizing federal teams with the Hammer Award, the Vice President is providing tremendous encouragement to the spirit of change."

Under Cuomo, HUD has made significant management reforms, including a transformation in the way the agency interacts with communities as celebrated by today's opening of the first HUD Storefront office in Washington, D.C., and the placement of HUD employees called "Community Builders" in all 81 of the Department's field offices.

Joining Secretary Cuomo at the Storefront opening was management reform expert David Osborne, who released a report evaluating HUD's sweeping improvements. These changes are transforming HUD into an agency with improved business practices modeled on some of the most successful corporate reinvention strategies of recent years.

The HUD recipients of Vice President Gore's Hammer Awards to be awarded later in May are as follows:

HUD Model Office Team - The Model Office Team helped HUD restructure the ways in which we provide services to communities. Among the innovations is the creation of the "Community Builder" positions - employees dedicated to understanding the challenges communities face, providing expert assistance for solving local problems, building local partnerships and facilitating the use of HUD resources in these efforts.

HUD Next Door Kiosk Team - This Team created electronic kiosks which will be throughout communities nationwide to allow citizens access to basic information, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Using the kiosk, residents can find out about the availability of affordable rental housing , how to file a housing discrimination complaint, homebuying information, how to get an FHA refund, and about HUD's partnership with their community.

Office of Departmental Operations and Coordination Team - The Team successfully developed, coordinated and guided the entire HUD 2020 Management Reform Plan. This effort reflects the input and insights of HUD's Secretary Cuomo, and President Clinton's mandate to make federal government more efficient and responsive to citizens while realizing savings for taxpayers.

Departmental Enforcement Center Implementation Team - The Team developed plans for the creation of the HUD Enforcement Center which will be responsible for taking aggressive enforcement action in the area of housing and public and Indian housing and is charged with "cracking down" on bad landlords and equity skimmers who are not in compliance with HUD program legal requirements.

Section 8 Financial Management Center Team - The Section 8 Team was responsible for consolidating the work of 51 HUD offices, 10 Field Accounting Divisions, HUD's Office of Housing and the Office of Public and Indian Housing. The Section 8 Financial Management Center will provide electronic payment of housing assistance and integrate the financial management of all rental assistance programs administrated by HUD.

Multifamily Property Disposition Team - The Office of Housing consolidated its Multifamily Property Disposition Program from over 30 offices into 2 Centers.

Community Connections Team - This Team developed the Community 2020 Geographic Information System (GIS) Program that offers affordable, easy to use software which benefits citizens as well housing and community development professionals.

Ginnie Mae Path to Homeownership Team - This is a user-friendly, self-administrated, automated loan pre-qualification process where prospective borrowers can determine maximum government loan amounts or home purchase prices based on information they provide.

Title VIII (FHEO) Processing Team - This Team redesigned FHEO's Title VIII housing discrimination complaint process, an effort which will result in improvements to the Department's overall discrimination review efforts.

Ginnie Mae BPR/Paperless Processing Team - Ginnie Mae has eliminated all of the paper processes previously necessary to issue mortgage-backed securities.

The FHA Connections Team - This is an interactive system on the Internet that gives lenders real-time access to several FHA systems for the purpose of originating loans. This system reduces the amount of time it takes to get a case insured from 10 days to 2 � days.

The Housing Counseling Internet Reporting Team - This team automated the collection of annual Housing Counseling Reports from HUD-approved Housing Counseling agencies.

The Fort Worth REO Bidding Team - A Team that created a consolidated and paperless Real Estate Owned property process.

The Manufactured Housing Technology Team - The Team reinvented the process of analyzing, managing and providing data associated with the Manufactured Housing Program.