Pamela Patenaude submitted her resignation as HUD Deputy Secretary on December 17 after serving in that role for 15 months. In a Twitter statement, Ms. Patenaude wrote, “This morning I informed Secretary Carson of my decision to leave HUD in the new year. …Thank you to my HUD family and fellow ‘housers’ for helping Americans access decent, safe and affordable housing.” A senior HUD official indicated to media outlets that Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Brian Montgomery will serve as acting deputy secretary.
“This is a tremendous loss for HUD because Pam’s expertise and dedication to housing for the lowest income and most vulnerable people is a big part of what held HUD together over the last two years,” said NLIHC President and CEO Diane Yentel. “She advanced some helpful policies forward, particularly around disaster housing recovery, and as importantly, stopped several harmful proposals from moving forward in the Administration. With Pam gone, others in the administration may redouble their efforts to advance their harmful agenda of work requirements, time limits, and funding cuts to critical programs.”
Ms. Patenaude’s previous HUD experience included serving as assistant secretary for community planning and development during the George W. Bush administration, and prior to that as the assistant deputy secretary for field policy and management.
Prior to re-joining HUD for the Trump administration, Ms. Patenaude served as the president of the J. Ronald Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families. Before co-founding the Terwilliger Foundation, she was the director of housing policy for the Bipartisan Policy Center. Ms. Patenaude also served as executive vice president of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and was the founding executive director of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing.