HUD official discusses department’s role in Katrina recovery

For someone new to Washington, Orlando Cabrera is already well connected.

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., President Bush's first secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, called Cabrera "a man of great character and competence" during his Oct. 25 confirmation hearing as HUD's assistant secretary for public and Indian housing.

Cabrera, 43, most recently was executive director of the Florida Housing Finance Corp.; Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him to that agency's board of directors in 2000. Before that, Cabrera was a partner with Holland & Knight in Miami, specializing in real estate and corporate law.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Cabrera was born in Tarrytown, N.Y., but the "rabid Red Sox fan" grew up in Boston and Miami. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin.

In his first interview as assistant secretary, Cabrera talks about the future of public housing, Hurricane Katrina, and his brief stint working for a corporate raider.

NJ: When did your parents emigrate to America?

Cabrera: My dad [Orlando] was exiled by [Cuban dictator Fugencio] Batista in 1958, and then he was exiled by [Fidel] Castro in 1959.

NJ: What did he do?

Cabrera: He wanted democracy. He was, at that time, an engineering student. He finally came to this country in 1960, and settled in Tarrytown. My mother [Carmen] had trouble getting out of Cuba, and eventually got out in 1961.

NJ: What got you interested in housing and real estate issues?

Cabrera: It was really serendipitous. I needed a job when I got out of college. Actually I had a job, but I just couldn't stand it -- I worked as the chief assistant to the general counsel and to the CFO of a company called DWG [in Miami]. DWG was owned by [the late corporate raider] Victor Posner, and that was a very interesting work environment.

NJ: How so?

Cabrera: Can we not go here? [laughs] Victor Posner was most well known for being a greenmailer back in the early '80s, and it was just a very intense and challenging atmosphere. So I left DWG and went to work for Dean Witter [in Miami] in their brokerage program. I realized I didn't like that either. I loved the technical side, the analytical side. I just didn't like to sell, and that's a bad thing when you're a broker. So, I wound up in a class for the LSAT, because I knew I wanted to go to law school eventually. I met a paralegal at a then-small, unknown Miami law firm called Greenberg Traurig. They needed a paralegal who had some basic understanding of financial markets. The first assignment that I had was [dealing] with the housing bonds issued by the precursor to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.

NJ: What are your priorities as assistant secretary over the next year?

Cabrera: I think over the next year, my top priority, far and away, is to get the [public housing] operating subsidy rule that we recently published in shape and moving. It's a rule that essentially moves us from a unit-based allocation of subsidy to an asset-based allocation of subsidy. It makes HUD an overseer of asset managers, and it makes public housing authorities asset managers. And that's a very new role for both of us.

NJ: Is this part of a plan to give more flexibility to public housing authorities?

Cabrera: Absolutely.

NJ: What is your shop's role in Hurricane Katrina recovery?

Cabrera: We've had a good amount of success [with the Katrina Disaster Hurricane Assistance Program]. We're trying to encourage people to utilize it, and believe it or not, it's tough. When a hurricane hits, there is this myth that [people] go and live in hotels. They don't. Or that they go and live in shelters. They do, for a very short while. Most folks go live with friends and family. And, notwithstanding everything we've read in the press about people not wanting to go home, they desperately want to go home. That's what they know. And if they don't now, they will.

NJ: But presumably, a lot of low-income housing stock has been destroyed. Is there a plan for rebuilding?

Cabrera: Is there a written plan that I have either in my office, or on this conference room table, or anywhere in this department, at this point in time? No, I think that's pretty much a work in progress, but it would have to be. One of the hardest things to do is to recover from a hurricane. South Florida did not recover from [Hurricane] Andrew for five or six years. Katrina was a much more devastating hurricane than Andrew, and I suspect we are going to be making, changing, adopting, and reconsidering plans for a long time to come.