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Capacity, Capacity, Capacity: The Challenge of Urban Policy in the Age of Obama

Over the years, however, HUD gradually evolved away from its broad mission, becoming instead primarily a housing agency, focused especially on low-income housing. Affordable housing is clearly important, especially in high cost-of-living cities where gentrification puts constant price pressure on low-income families. In weak market neighborhoods and metropolitan areas, however, affordable housing is not the first priority in efforts to revive distressed neighborhoods. Disadvantaged communities need jobs, good performing schools, public safety, and other improvements in order to build the market for housing to avoid housing abandonment and the social decay that comes with it. Urban and metropolitan policy has not been a visible priority of the Obama administration. The president said little about urban and metropolitan issues in his re-election campaign. Funding for urban programs continues to decline. Much of the blame for this must go to the Great Recession and ensuing fiscal crisis. The Democrats did control both houses of Congress from 2009–2011, but they were preoccupied with the economic crisis. It is unclear how much more Obama and the Democrats could have obtained for cities if the economy had fared better and they had retained control of both houses of Congress after the 2010 election. Within the constraints of tight fiscal conditions, however, the Obama administration, to its credit, has begun to move HUD back to its original, broader mission. In August 2011, the White House issued a memorandum to all department and agency heads calling for “place-based” policies that “break down federal ‘silos’” (Office of Management and Budget, 2009). The Obama administration has developed a number of federal programs that are designed to coordinate policies across a range of federal agencies, including Promise Neighborhoods, Choice Neighborhoods, and the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Collaborating with other departments, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan began to put the “UD” back in HUD. Funding for the new generation of urban programs is completely inadequate to integrate distressed communities back into the metropolitan fabric but, as pilot programs, they should be carefully