Partnering to Support Sustainable Communities: A Special Address by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan This year, CNU has the privilege of welcoming the Honorable Shaun Donovan, the 15th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Overseeing a housing sector ravaged by market shock and the near-failure of lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Donovan has responded with visionary leadership. Recognizing that a U.S. economy in desperate need of a recovery can no longer afford to have Federal departments working at cross-purposes, he has joined with his counterparts at the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the innovative Partnership for Sustainable Communities, through which the three agencies target for change policies that promote automobile dependency and energy inefficiency and reorient them around six livability principles that echo the Charter of the New Urbanism. Donovan brings to the Congress an important and welcome message about the elimination of government silos and the removal of policy barriers in order to make neighborhoods more walkable, connected and diverse — all at a tremendous value to the economy. (Javascript is required to view Mediasite content)