NYC Housing Commissioner to Head HUD

President-elect Barack Obama today named Shaun Donovan, New York City's commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development, to be secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

As head of New York City's housing agency, Donovan, 42, helped lead what was called the nation's largest affordable housing plan, which aims to build or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing by 2013. He also has led efforts to provide legal and credit assistance and financial education to homebuyers seen as being most prone to predatory lending. Most recently, he has worked as an Obama campaign adviser, after taking a leave of absence from his job in the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.