Housing Secretary Marcia L. Fudge says with “mixed emotions” she will resign her position next week, alerting her staff in an email she wrote on Monday, March 11.
She called it “the ideal opportunity to culminate a career focused on doing the most good for the most people, including those who have often been left behind or left out. With mixed emotions, I am announcing my retirement and resignation from the position of Secretary of HUD, effective March 22, 2024.”
Fudge, 71, became the 18th U.S. HUD Secretary upon taking office on March 10, 2021, but she’s only the sixth Black person and only the second Black woman in the history of the office, which dates to President Johnson’s administration in 1965. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the U.S. Representative from Ohio’s 11th Congressional District from 2008 to 2021. Prior to being elected to Congress, Fudge was the first Black mayor — and the first female mayor — of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, from 2000 to 2008.
“It’s time to go home,’’ Fudge told USA Today. “I do believe strongly that I have done just about everything I could do at HUD for this administration as we go into this crazy, silly season of an election.”
Fudge lauded for ‘transformational leadership’
President Biden nominated Fudge to the top position at HUD and she was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 4, 2021, five weeks before being sworn in.
The president saluted Fudge’s “transformational leadership” in a statement, saying, “When I took office, we inherited a broken housing system, with fair housing and civil rights protections badly dismantled under the prior administration. On day one, Marcia got to work rebuilding the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and over the past three years she has been a strong voice for expanding efforts to build generational wealth through homeownership and lowering costs and promoting fairness for America’s renters.”
Biden added, “Thanks to Secretary Fudge, we’ve helped first-time home buyers, and we are working to cut the cost of renting. And there are more housing units under construction right now than at any time in the last 50 years.”
Deputy secretary Adrianne Todman, who was born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, will serve as acting HUD secretary and become the third Black woman in that role upon Fudge’s departure, according to the White House. She has been the deputy secretary since June 2021.
Biden nevertheless plans to nominate a permanent replacement for Fudge, deputy White House press secretary Olivia Dalton said without elaborating.
With her retirement into private life during Women’s History Month, Fudge leaves behind a department with a budget she says is too small to meet the overwhelming need, which includes building more affordable housing and repairing aging public housing developments. The need is more than $70 billion, but the supply is only $3 billion.
“We’re making incremental changes, but we need to make bigger changes and we need to make them faster,’’ Fudge said. “We’re doing everything we can with the resources we’ve got.”
Waters praises Fudge for her ‘legacy’
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., one of the most influential Black voices in Washington, lauded Fudge’s efforts to address homelessness, citing her efforts to include funds in the 2021 American Rescue Plan.
“I think that’s her legacy,” said Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
The Congressional Black Caucus commended Fudge for her focus on racial equity and her efforts to bridge the racial gap in Black homeownership.
