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Outgoing HUD Secretary Accused of Ignoring Housing Crisis

Criticism is mounting of outgoing Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson’s handling of the national housing crisis. Jackson is said to have ignored repeated warnings from within his agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, that the rise in subprime mortgages was increasing the risk of home foreclosures. During Jackson’s tenure, foreclosures on government-insured housing loans and default rates have hit a record high. In interviews with the Washington Post, HUD officials revealed Jackson used agency money for perks including a personal chef and a full-time security detail. Jackson’s office also opened a $7 million auditorium and cafeteria at HUD’s headquarters despite calls to use that money for low-income housing. Jackson also solicited an emergency bid for oil portraits of himself and four other HUD secretaries—at a taxpayer cost of $100,000. Housing experts say Jackson will be remembered as so committed to President Bush’s stated goal of increasing homeownership that he brought mortgage risks to new highs.

Posted by Mare 139 on April 14, 2008 at 11:51 AM

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Carlos Mare 139 Rodriguez is an internationally acclaimed artist/sculptor and pioneer in the art and culture of Hip Hop. Leading his generation into a new world of possibility with style writing sculpture, he pioneered a vision that had, before him, no reference outside of the painted subways of the time. Throughout his career as a sculpter, Mare 139 has consistently brought innovation to the genre’s aesthetic and vocabulary. Mare 139 earned the prestigeous 2006 Webby Award for his launch of the Hip Hop documentary Style Wars website. Style Wars has also garnered the COMMARTS/Communication Arts Award, Horizon Interactive Award, as well as SXSW/South by Southwest Interactive. Not only an award winner but an award designer, Mare 139 designed and created the award for the annual BET/Black Entertainment Award show, which is given annually to entertainers, athletes and actors. Recipients include Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jay Z, Prince Snoop Dog, Beyonce, Kobe Bryant, Usher, Serena Williams and many others. He also designed a G-Unit Award expressly for 50Cent given to him by fashion designer Marc Ecko. Other award projects include the 2005 and 2007 Red Bull Beat Battle Award and more recent the SPY Award for the 30th Anniversary of the Rock Steady Crew. In 2006-07 Mare 139 worked closely with Director/Actor Robert DeNiro on the film The Good Shepherd as a documenter of ‘the making of the movie’ and as member of Mr. DeNiro’s editing team. His writing has been published in Martha Coopers brilliant photo book Street Play that documents the imaginative ‘play’ of children in the streets of NYC in the late 1970’s. His writings capture the creative play and dangers of his youth in the South Bronx.

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