President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge from Ohio to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, otherwise known as HUD, according to multiple reports.
Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Democratic whip, lobbied for Fudge to be a part of Biden’s Cabinet.
Fudge was first elected to the House in 2008 and represents the 11th Congressional District in Ohio, which includes most of the majority-black precincts between Cleveland and Akron.
Fudge does not sit on any of the House committees with jurisdiction over HUD. She was a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
If confirmed by the Senate to run HUD, Fudge will face a housing affordability crisis upon taking the helm.
Roughly 19 million people are at risk of eviction from their rental homes when the moratoriums expire at the end of the year, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the University of Arizona. That total rivals the number of foreclosures during the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Biden seeks to spend $640 billion over 10 years that would provide people greater access to affordable housing. Part of that money would provide tenants facing eviction with legal assistance to keep from being kicked out of their homes. It would provide access to housing that would cost no more than 30% of a renter’s income so there’s money left over to meet other needs.
The president-elect has also pledged to reinstate a rule that President Trump reversed that requires communities receiving federal funding to examine housing patterns and address any policy that discriminates.
Fudge was the first African American and first female mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio.
She received her undergraduate degree in business from Ohio State University and earned her law degree from the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall School of Law.
