Annual Performance Plan 508

Message from Secretary Castro
I’m proud to present the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fiscal Year
2014 Annual Performance Report (APR) and Fiscal Year 2016 Annual Performance Plan
(APP).
In 2014, HUD reaffirmed its role as the Department of Opportunity. The work we did to
help folks secure decent housing, revitalize communities, and strengthen the economy
laid the foundation for millions of Americans to achieve their dreams. We also brought a
renewed focus to HUD’s operations, shaping a smarter, more efficient agency that focuses
on bettering the lives of all Americans.
This report illustrates how we’ve created opportunity for folks across the country. Through the Opening Doors
initiative, working with partners, we’ve helped reduce homelessness by nearly 10 percent since 2010, including a
33 percent decline in homelessness among veterans. HUD enhanced its place-based initiatives by engaging local
leaders in a holistic fashion to advance opportunity in cities from coast-to-coast. HUD named seven new locations
to receive technical advice and expertise through the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative and
oversaw the opening of the competition for a second round of Promise Zone designations.
We also strengthened the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to preserve its decades-long mission of providing
access to credit for families—of all income levels—who are creditworthy and ready to buy. FHA’s Mutual Mortgage
Insurance (MMI) Fund is back-in-the-black, now standing at $4.8 billion thanks to aggressive policy actions that led
to a 14 percent drop in delinquency rates and a 16 percent improvement in recovery rates from the previous year.
To better prepare for the challenges of climate change, HUD launched the National Disaster Resilience
Competition which allows communities that have experienced natural disasters to compete for nearly $1 billion in
funding to help them rebuild and increase their resiliency for future extreme weather events.
And we’re rebuilding the nation’s public housing stock through our Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) by
leveraging private investment. The first 57 RAD deals have raised $437 million in private financing—a ratio of $19
in private funding for every $1 in public funding—for the renovation of 7,500 public housing units.
All around America, HUD is delivering help and hope to underserved communities. Our efforts have helped
generate momentum in the housing market and the overall economy. Key economic housing trends—sales, starts,
and equity—are all trending up. Our task now is to ensure that this prosperity is available to everyone.
I am able provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of the performance data in this report. The entire
HUD organization is firmly committed to making 2015 a year of progress and opportunity for the people we serve,
to better ensure a strong foundation to implement our fiscal year 2016 Annual Performance Plan. We will keep at
it until we build a future strong enough for all to prosper.
Julián Castro
Secretary
Section One: Agency and Mission
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