Alphonso Jackson HUD Secretary Nominee

The President announced Friday that he nominated Alphonso Jackson to be the agency’s new Secretary. If confirmed Jackson, who was confirmed in June 2001 by the U.S. senate as HUDs Deputy Secretary, will become the thirteenth HUD Secretary, according to the White House.

“I can tell you from personal experience that Alphonso is a man of great integrity and compassion,” the President told reporters. “We used to live in the same neighborhood in Dallas.”

Jackson’s history in Dallas is somewhat controversial, according to the Dallas Morning News. In 1993, while head of the The Housing Authority of the city of Dallas, he shoved a city council member into a door during a heated argument, the publication reported, and publicly accused a council member of making racist remarks. The city council members reportedly called for his removal.

He “received threatening letters and calls while carrying out a controversial court order to build public housing in predominantly white North Dallas neighborhoods,” the Morning News reported.

However, while he had lots of fighting energy in him, “he has learned how to channel and use that,” the Morning News quoted a former Housing Authority commissioner as saying.

According to HUD, Jackson also served as the president of a $13 billion utility company in Austin, Texas. In addition, he reportedly held the position of Director of the Department of Public and Assisted Housing in Washington, D.C.

“Our work at HUD defines the compassionate conservatism the President talks about often,” Jackson said at the White House press conference. “Mr. President, you have set an ambitious goal for HUD and one I look forward to carrying out.”

HUDs top spot became available when Mel Martinez, who raised his own profile beyond Florida from his tenure as Secretary, announced last week that he would resign the post. Published reports say Martinez will attempt to capture one of Florida’s two U.S. Senate seats next year. Martinez — a Cuban refugee — replaced Clinton-appointee Andrew Cuomo in 2001. Jackson, who is credited with sweeping improvements in the Dallas’ public housing, built a reputation for turning the local housing authority into one of the nation’s best-run big city housing agencies, the Morning News said.

Alphonso Jackson & President Bush