I knew what people needed in their communities to improve their lives and then get it done. When I started, HUD was one of the worst federal agencies in government. Today, it is one of the best. To make that happen, I had to talk directly to people to find out what they thought, what their concerns were, and how we should fix problems. This wasn't easy at times.
Governments can be big, bureaucratic, and equipped with barriers to block people from access.
I changed all of that at HUD by taking government to the people. HUD now has street-level offices where the public can walk in and tell government employees exactly what they think. Kiosks, located in shopping malls and other public places, are available around the clock to provide important, sometimes life-saving, information. During my tenure, anyone could walk into a HUD office, use a computer and printer to get information about housing and jobs, and then send me an email about what they wanted me to do. If we can do this at the federal government level, the same can be done in New York as well.