The new man intends to shake up his department

PEOPLE are sceptical about HUD, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. It has a history of “inability to deliver”. Common sentiments among housing activists; odder to hear them from Shaun Donovan, HUD’s new secretary. Just 100 days into his job Mr Donovan accepts that his department, created to increase homeownership, support community development and provide access to affordable housing free from discrimination, has not lived up to its mission.

新部长打算重新改组他的部门

人们对联邦住房和城市发展部始终抱怀疑态度，因为后者向来就有“说到做不到”的传统。对那些住房问题的社会活动家而言，这种论调相当正常，但如果新上任的住房和城市发展部部长肖恩·多诺万也那么说，那可就有点另类了。这个部门设立的初衷是能够让更多的人拥有住房，支持社区的发展以及保证人们在不受歧视的条件下买得起住房。但在上任一百天之际，多诺万承认他的部门的确是有孚众望。

And it is some mission at the moment. Unemployment is approaching 9%. There were 2.2m foreclosures last year. According to RealtyTrac, a property analyst, foreclosure filings last month increased by 32% over April 2008; one in every 374 housing units received a filing, the highest figure RealtyTrac has recorded. Though repossessions by banks were down in April, a spike is expected this year. And at the centre of HUD lurks the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the country’s largest mortgage insurer, which has been described as “a subprime entity within the federal government”—with all that that implies.

而眼下正有任务等着他们。目前的失业率将近9%，而去年共有两百二十万处房产被银行收回。根据房产分析公司 RealtyTrac提供的数字，上个月提请没收物业的要求比去年4月增加了32%；平均每374间单位房产中就有一间收到要求没收的申请，创下该公司的统计数据新高。尽管四月份银行回收房产的数量有所下降，但预计今年还是会有个急剧增长的阶段。联邦住宅管理局（FHA）是住房和城市发展部的核心隶属单位，也是美国最大的贷款抵押承受人。它常被人们称作“美国的次级联邦政府”，种种迹象都表明，此言非虚。

But “in crisis, there is opportunity”, says Mr Donovan. And HUD is trying to seize it. A “Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan” announced in February, aims to help 7m-9m homeowners stay in their homes. On May 12th it announced that a $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers could be used as down-payment on a mortgage from the FHA. Earlier this month, HUD said it would provide $2 billion in stimulus funds to stabilise neighbourhoods hit by foreclosure. More than any other HUD secretary, Mr Donovan is sitting “at the table” with the president and Tim Geithner, the treasury secretary.

不过多诺万却表示，“危机中也孕育着机遇。”住房和城市发展部也正抓住这个时机，于二月份公布了一个名为“经济适用房及住房稳定”的计划，旨在帮助7百万到9百万住房拥有者的房产不至于被银行收走。5月12日，他们宣布首次购房者如果与联邦住宅管理局办理了抵押手续，可以在首付时享受额度达8000美元的抵税政策。本月初，住房和城市发展部声称将从刺激经济的资金中拨款20亿美元，用于抵消由于房产频频被银行没收对社区所造成的负面影响。多诺万现在跟总统及财政部长蒂姆·盖特纳紧密地站在一起，这是以往历任部长所做不到的。

The 43-year-old New Yorker, though he looks like a fresh-faced boy, is well qualified. He worked for HUD under Bill Clinton, and has spent time in academia as well as in the private housing sector. Most recently he was New York City’s housing commissioner. He headed Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $7.5 billion New Housing Marketplace Plan, which will build or preserve 165,000 units for low- and moderate-income families by 2013. And he helped implement PlaNYC, a long-term scheme to build houses for up to 1m New Yorkers, link them to transport, clean up brownfields, plant 1m trees and improve air and water across the five boroughs. City agencies, non-profits and private firms all worked together. Often the only roadblock to innovation in New York, he found, was HUD.

多诺万今年43岁，在纽约长大。他虽然看上去像个年轻的大男孩，但资历颇深。他早在克林顿时期就曾在住房和城市发展部工作，也涉足过私人住房领域，还在学术界待过。在担任联邦部长之前，他是纽约市负责公共住房事务的行政官员。他负责实施由纽约市长布隆伯格提出的“新住房市场计划”，该计划耗资75亿美元，将于2013年前为纽约16万5千户中低收入家庭建造房屋，或让他们的住所免于被收回。此外，他还帮助实施一项名为“PlaNYC”的长期计划，发动政府部门、非盈利机构和私人企业一起行动，为多达百万的纽约市民建造房屋，并在周边发展交通设施，清理遭工业污染的地块，种植一百万棵树，以及在全市5个区的范围内全面提高空气和水的质量。但他发现，联邦住房和城市发展部经常成为纽约市在推行新举措时的拦路虎。

Effective land use particularly interests him. Traditionally, the federal government has nothing to do with that; it treats it as a local matter, and a dangerously controversial one. Mr Donovan means to change that. In New York he re-zoned huge swathes of land from commercial to residential use. He points with particular pride to a development in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, where he successfully re-zoned decaying lots and warehouses on the waterfront for mixed income residential use, a park and a ferry to Manhattan.

如何有效地利用土地是他尤为感兴趣的问题。这个问题容易引起争议，因此联邦政府向来撒手不管，把它推给地方上去解决。多诺万有意要改变这一状况。还在纽约的时候，他就曾重新从商家手中划出大片的土地用于民用住宅建设。尤其令他感到骄傲的是布鲁克林区威廉斯堡的发展，当时他从成功地把沿着河岸的废弃空地和仓库改建成了居民用地，让不同收入的市民居住在一起，还建造了一座公园及前往曼哈顿的渡口。

Even as he battles the housing crisis, Mr Donovan is setting an agenda, one not seen in decades. He wants HUD to be more than the department of subsidised housing, and hopes to focus too on the urban development side. A big fan of statistics, he looked at foreclosure patterns and observed that neighbourhoods with the highest rates were in the least sustainable places, in isolated suburbs and older urban areas far away from jobs and schools. This suggests that the recession may shake out and slim down cities, making them eventually better places to live.

在应对住房危机的同时，多诺万甚至还制订了一份工作日程（像这样的计划几十年里还是头一遭）。他希望住房与城市发展部不仅是个解决住房补贴问题的部门，而且还要将精力放在城市发展问题上。多诺万很喜欢用数据说话。他对银行回收房屋的情况进行了研究，发现那些发展最差的地区、偏远的郊区和远离办公地点和学校的老住宅区往往房屋被回收的频率最高。这也就是说，经济衰退会让城市的范围缩小，最终迫使人们对居住环境进行改善。

Mr Donovan is already collaborating with Arne Duncan, the education secretary, and the heads of the Departments of Energy and Transport, as well as Mr Geithner. He is keenly aware that HUD is not just for cities—that traditional “urban problems”, such as poverty and affordable housing, are now regional problems. Conversely, he is aware that urban development is also about better transport links and better schools. It all hangs together.

除了盖特纳，多诺万还正和教育部长阿恩·邓肯以及能源和交通部的头头们通力协作。他敏锐地认识到，住房和城市发展部不单是为那些大城市而服务的。诸如贫困和住房问题以前只有在大城市才会出现，而现在已经演变成为更多地方的问题了。但是，他也认识到城市要发展，还是要发展更便利的交通，提供更好的教育，这都是联系在一起的。

NOTES:
shake up: reorganize, organize anew/agitate.重组，使...骚动

Department of Housing and Urban Development: HUD's mission is to increase homeownership, support community development and increase access to affordable housing free from discrimination. To fulfill this mission, HUD will embrace high standards of ethics, management and accountability and forge new partnerships--particularly with faith-based and community organizations--that leverage resources and improve HUD's ability to be effective on the community level.

sentiments: （复数）表示观点、意见

foreclosure: Foreclosure is the legal and professional proceeding in which a mortgagee, or other lienholder, usually a lender, obtains a court ordered termination of a mortgagor's equitable right of redemption. Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan. If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the borrower the equitable right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt. While this equitable right exists, the lender cannot be sure that it can successfully repossess the property, thus the lender seeks to foreclose the equitable right of redemption. Other lienholders can also foreclose the owner's right of redemption for other debts, such as for overdue taxes, unpaid contractors' bills or overdue HOA dues or assessments.

more than any other: 比任何其他都要...

slim down: to reduce one's weight, 瘦身