Below is a snippet from Shaun Donovan's confirmation hearing on January 13, 2009, with our emphasis added:

Sen. Robert Menendez: And lastly, uh, 40 years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, a good part of our country remains highly segregated.  Of more than 4 million estimated fair housing violations annually, only 27,000 complaints are processed.  Of these, uh, HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, they only charged 31 cases, and has failed in my view to address the continuing systemic segregation nationwide.  As HUD’s secretary, would you reform HUD’s fair lending programs to ensure that discrimination in lending is addressed and how do you view the role of HUD in addressing segregation and discrimination as we move forward?

Shaun Donovan: Senator, thank you for asking that question because I think that is a very important piece of HUD that frankly too often doesn’t get the kind of attention that it, uh, deserves.  And let me just say, personally, one of the reasons that I do that work I do is because when a family chooses a home, be it a renter or an owner, they choose often, a public school for their child, they choose a set of services. Uh, how good is the policing in that area?  They choose access to jobs, they choose so many things that affect the very fabric of their lives.  And so, if we can’t ensure access, equal access to housing, I frankly think we can’t fulfill the promise of opportunity that this country holds out. And so we must make sure that fair housing is a real priority at HUD. And you quoted the numbers that those 31 cases are down from about 3 times that number in 2001 and about 4 times that number from the height of HUD’s efforts, so I am significantly concerned about the needing stronger enforcement of fair housing and you have my pledge that I will look at that that.  I also think there is a very important report, the Kemp/Cisneros report that, as you know, has some very important conclusions that I think HUD has to look very closely at in terms of understanding where its fair housing efforts need to go.

(above is video of the question and answer)

Much like Pres. Obama's HUD transition team, Sec. Donovan seems to believe that fair housing is important because is expands access to opportunity - not simply because it is "the law". This reflects a dramatic change from the previous HUD leadership, and we look forward to seeing just how this new perspective will be reflected in changes to existing policies and new initiatives.