Carol Galante, one of President Barack Obama’s top housing specialists and commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), has announced that she will step down at the end of the year from her position. Galante will be accepting a private sector job at UC Berkley in California, the school in which she received her Master of City Planning degree from. At Berkley, she will serve as director of the Berkeley Program in Housing and Urban Policy, and co-chair the Fisher Center on Real Estate Policy Advisory Board.
“As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily, Carol played an instrumental role bolstering the strength and stability of FHA’s multifamily and healthcare programs coming out of the financial crisis,” said David H. Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) in a statement. “Since assuming her current role as FHA Commissioner, she has worked tirelessly on the critical reforms to further strengthen FHA’s risk management that have helped restore the financial health of the MMI fund. Throughout it all, she has been a strong advocate for FHA’s primary role providing safe, affordable, sustainable housing opportunities for all Americans.”
As FHA Commissioner, Galante had direct responsibility for oversight and administration of the FHA’s trillion dollar insurance portfolio, which includes single family and multifamily housing, as well as insured healthcare facilities. She is also responsible for several of HUD’s rental assistance programs, including 1.2 million units of Project Based Rental Assistance, and 400,000-plus apartments for elderly and the disabled under the Section 202 and 811 programs.
She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner on Dec. 30, 2012. Prior to her confirmation, Galante served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing/FHA Commissioner, having first joined HUD in May 2009 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing programs.
