On April 24, HUD announced that the reorganization of the Office of Multifamily Housing Programs field staff currently at 80 offices. The 17 Multifamily Housing hubs will be consolidated into five regions, each with one hub office and one satellite office. Multifamily Housing will continue to have at least one office in each state. Staff in 40 locations will have to relocate, accept a $25,000 buyout, or take early retirement.In addition, 16 small offices will be closed. The 120 employees at the 16 sites to be closed also will have the choice of relocating, accepting a $25,000 buyout, or taking early retirement. The closures are expected to start this fall and be completed by 2014. Once fully implemented, closing the 16 small offices will save an estimated $11-15 million each year.HUD is also proposing to transform the way its field offices and headquarters offices operate over the next two and one-half years. In the field, “workload sharing” will be instituted, allowing offices, teams, and managers to distribute the workload across the country in response to demand. Workload sharing has been piloted at several hubs. In addition, production applications will be assigned according to complexity and risk, with more experienced underwriters processing the more difficult and riskier projects. Multifamily Housing will also switch to an asset management model, with current Project Managers working on non-troubled projects, while more senior staff take on the new role of Troubled Asset Specialist.The Office of Multifamily Housing Programs headquarters will also be restructured into four main offices: Production, Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight, Recapitalization (currently known as the Office of Affordable Housing Preservation), and Field Operations.The combination of office consolidation and operations transformation will affect approximately 900 of HUD’s total 9,300 workforce, and will save $40-45 million annually once fully implemented in 2016. View a Federal Register Notice regarding the closure of small offices at http://1.usa.gov/12thAgz. View a new Transforming HUD for the 21st Century webpage with various descriptions of the changes at http://1.usa.gov/12z1Po6.