Update: On July 9, the Senate confirmed San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro as the next Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary by a 71-26 vote. His nomination was approved by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee last month. Mayor Castro will succeed current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who has been nominated to become director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). See more about both nominees below.

On May 23, President Obama announced significant cabinet position changes, including his nominations of Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio to become the next Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and current HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to head the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Secretary Donovan has served as Secretary of HUD since 2009 and is responsible for helping to stabilize the housing market after the foreclosure crisis. During his tenure, he has been a proponent of evidence-based and data-driven reforms and has helped more than 450,000 families avoid foreclosure through FHA’s loss mitigation and home retention servicing tools and helped extend the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Challenge to the multifamily housing sector. Nearly 60 partners have committed to cut energy waste by 20 percent in 10 years, representing over 260 million square feet and roughly 280,000 households. Donovan has also been instrumental in his role as Chair of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, including the development of a comprehensive regional plan based on local vision for redevelopment to guide long term disaster recovery efforts.

Julián Castro, the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city, has served as mayor of San Antonio since 2009. Since then, Mayor Castro has brought a sense of urgency to revitalizing the city’s urban core, including the development of the East Side Promise Zone as a part of his “Decade of Downtown” initiative. He has also approved a series of incentives to encourage inner city investment which have spurred plans for the construction of more than 2,400 housing units by the end of 2014, which represents $349.8 million in total investment. In addition, San Antonio’s East Side is the only neighborhood in America to have received each of the Promise Grant, Choice Grant and Promise Zone designations, of which Mayor Castro has been a leader in implementing.

NH&RA wishes Secretary Donovan the best in his new venture and welcomes Mayor Castro as the next Secretary of HUD.

Click here to read the White House press release.