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Bush Taps Preston as HUD Chief

WASHINGTON, DC-With Alphonso Jackson's departure, the housing agency needs to fill the leadership vacuum if it wants to successfully steer through the housing crisis.

By Erika Morphy | Updated on April 21, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC-President George Bush has nominated the head of the US Small Business Administration Steve Preston to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. If confirmed by the Senate, he will replace Alphonso Jackson, who gave notice he was leaving his post at the beginning of the month Alphonso Jackson, for personal and family reasons.

When making the announcement Bush pointed to Preston’s management of the SBA’s loan guarantee programs, which is “similar in structure to those run by the Federal Housing Administration.” Preston streamlined the agency’s efforts to disburse loans to small businesses and homeowners devastated by Hurricane Katrina. “Within months of Steve’s reforms, the backlog of loans fell 80% and response times improved by 90%,” Bush said. “Today more than $6 billion in SBA loans are helping more than 160,000 Gulf Coast families rebuild their homes, their businesses and their lives.”

Preston indicated his experience with inner-city small businesses as another reason for him to assume the helm at HUD. “So I certainly hope to bring that spirit to the Department of Housing and Urban Development,” he said during Bush’s announcement of his nomination. Prior to SBA, Preston was executive vice president of Strategic Services at the ServiceMaster Co. and senior vice president and treasurer of First Data Corp.

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