The Senate confirmed on June 20 Hunter Kurtz to be HUD assistant secretary for Public and Indian Housing (PIH) and Seth Appleton to be HUD assistant secretary for Policy Development and Research (PD&R).
Mr. Kurtz most recently served as the principal deputy secretary for PIH. From June 2015 to January 2017 Mr. Kurtz served as deputy director of Detroit's Department of Housing and Revitalization. From March 2006 to November 2007, he served as special assistant to HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Pamela Patenaude. He then served as special assistant to the deputy chief of staff at HUD from November 2007 to July 2008 and as policy advisor in HUD’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations from July 2008 to January 2009. During this period, he worked with Brian Montgomery, then as now assistant secretary for the Office of Housing and commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration.
Mr. Appleton recently served as HUD's associate deputy secretary. Before that, he served as acting assistant secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. He previously served as chief of staff for Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) from 2009 to 2017. During his tenure with Mr. Luetkemeyer, Mr. Appleton focused on policy issues related to housing, financial services, small business, and agriculture, among other areas.
Prior to the June 20 Senate confirmation, neither PIH nor PD&R had assistant secretaries during the Trump administration. The Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) now lacks an assistant secretary since the departure of Neal Rackleff in December 2018. The two other program offices with assistant secretaries are the Office of Housing headed by Brian Montgomery and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity headed by Anna Maria Farías.
The Congressional Record of the confirmations is at: https://bit.ly/2ZE8ZdA
A HUD media release regarding Mr. Kurtz’ confirmation is at: https://bit.ly/2ZDy74c
A HUD media release regarding Mr. Appleton’s confirmation is at: https://bit.ly/2L2YzQF