Bush selects HUD deputy for department’s top slot

President Bush on Friday nominated Alphonso Jackson, deputy secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, to take over as housing chief.

Jackson would replace HUD Secretary Mel Martinez, who stepped down Friday to join the race for the Senate seat that Bob Graham, a Democrat, will leave vacant when he retires next fall. Before joining HUD in June 2001, Jackson served as president of American Electric Power-Texas, an Austin-based utility company. He also spent seven years as head of the Dallas Housing Authority.

"He's an experienced executive in the public and private sectors," Bush said Friday, adding that Jackson "knows the issues facing HUD and knows how to get things done."

As deputy secretary at HUD, Jackson has tackled a number of management issues for Martinez. For example, he has attempted to streamline and modernize the Federal Housing Administration. He has also pushed to empower field offices and worked to clarify chains of command within the department.

Over his nearly two-year tenure as housing chief, Martinez led efforts to help minorities and low-income families purchase homes, improve public housing, combat homelessness and prosecute lenders accused of fraud or deceptive practices. Under his watch more than one million minority families purchased homes and HUD prosecuted and convicted more predatory lenders than ever before.

Martinez received a grade of C on a management report card compiled last year by National Journal, partly because of problems inherited from his predecessors. The General Accounting Office has criticized him for lacking a plan to fill vacancies left by a wave of retirements at HUD. Sloppy management forced HUD to cut funds at local public housing authorities last year.