President Theodore Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation included provisions to help the middle class achieve “the American dream” of homeownership, taken up by the Federal Housing Administration; and the working class to find stable low-income rentals, oversight of which fell to the Public Housing Administration. Their somewhat overlapping missions led President Truman in 1947 to create the Housing and Home Finance Agency overseeing both, and over the decades the agency added responsibility of managing the growth of cities. Reflecting the shift in focus, the agency was once again reorganized and renamed.

On this day, September 9, in 1965 The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is established, with the “Urban” reflecting the mission of the Department to prevent city blight and homelessness, as well as discrimination in the housing market.

President Lyndon Johnson appointed Dr. Robert Weaver, the incumbent HHFA Administrator, as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Weaver became the first ever African American member of a President’s Cabinet, and the HUD headquarters building was named for him in 2000.