President Obama: HUD Sec'y (And New Yorker) Shaun Donovan Is Pointman For Sandy Recovery

We'll have more comprehensive stories on President Obama's visit to New York to see firsthand the damage done by Sandy shortly, but one announcement he just made during his trip to Staten Island: Federal HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who formerly ran the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development, will be the White House's point man on the recovery effort.

Donovan, first from the left in the image, of course shares a HUD history with Gov. Cuomo, who was appointed secretary of the department in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton.

The former HPD boss served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing in the Clinton Administration and was acting Federal Housing Authority Commissioner during the Clinton/Bush transition.

Update: The White House just sent out a backgrounder on Sandy recovery plans, highlighting Donovan's new role as New York's local go-to guy.

The WH notes, in part: "Secretary Donovan has deep roots in the region.? Before becoming HUD secretary in 2009, Donovan served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He created and implemented HPD's New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable homes, the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the nation's history.? He previously worked at the Community Preservation Corporation in New York City, a non-profit lender and developer of affordable housing, and Prudential Mortgage Capital in Newark, New Jersey, where he led its affordable housing portfolio. A native New Yorker, he also was a visiting scholar at New York University, where he researched and wrote about the preservation of federally-assisted housing. ?

"Secretary Donovan will be working closely with FEMA and other agencies working under the National Disaster Recovery Framework, a construct developed in the first term of the Obama Administration to improve long term recovery. FEMA continues to lead response and recovery efforts in the region."

Today, the president, accompanied by top federal, state and city officials, surveyed the situation in the region by air before arriving on Staten Island. As our Jonathan Lemire noted in a walk-up story on our main page today, "Twenty-three of the 43 New Yorkers killed during Sandy lived on Staten Island, which is still struggling with power outages and, for many, a lack of basic necessities."

Here's an earlier pool report on Obama's visit filed by Hunter Walker of the NYO.

Inside the Small Business Administration tent, President Obama and Congressman Grimm spoke with some of the relief workers and local residents. The president hugged several people and also posed for photos. Pool's vantage point was about twenty feet away through a small opening in the tent so it was difficult to overhear their conversations. We overheard the president tell one woman "it's your anniversary." He told a relief worker "You guys are doing great work" before taking a picture with them and promising "We're going to do a big FEMA picture later."

Schumer, Gillibrand and Cuomo stood outside talking. We asked them for their thoughts and Schumer suggested we "wait until later."

When Obama left the tent, he greeted NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly with an enthusiastic handshake-slash-hug.

"You've been busy," POTUS said to Mr. Kelly.

We could not hear the rest of their conversation.

After visiting the SBA tent and greeting Mr. Kelly outside, Obama posed for photos with the FEMA Corps volunteers. Pool overheard him telling them something about how happy he was "having young people like you who are involved like this making a difference in people's lives."

Next, POTUS made his way to the cordoned off group of cheering residents many of whom shouted his name and "we love you!" Pool saw one woman wearing the president's photo on the brim of her winter hat. Along with the governor, mayor and senators, the president worked the line shaking hands and taking photos. As he walked away he shouted back, "God bless you."

He then proceeded to the next tent which had a sign outside saying "Distribution Loading Area." On the way in, he dropped a small piece of paper and picked it up. Inside there were canned foods, cleaning materials, blankets, gloves and other supplies. Some residents were inside picking things up. The president and other officials posed for more photos and spoke with them.

Pool talked with a man who said his name was Al Bevacqua and he was from nearby New Dorp. We asked what he had to say to the president.

"We just want our houses fixed. We just need help. It seems like FEMA can't do anything without the insurance companies. They help with goods but we need the insurance companies," he said. "There's a lot of help out there. The community's been off the charts. Government's been doing what they can...but the insurance companies just keep people on hold. The community's been tremendous."

He later got a chance to speak with the president, but we could not hear.

Photo: ?President Barack Obama greets New York Governor Andrew Cuomo watched by (from left) Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg after landing at JFK on Thursday. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/nydnrss/blogs/~3/8XDF21skmWM/story01.htm

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