HUD Sending 50 on Relief Mission

The new Federal Housing Administration director for multifamily housing, Charles H. Williams, is heading to Baton Rouge, La., along with 50 Department of Housing and Urban Development employees to help victims of Hurricane Katrina find temporary housing.The HUD contingent led by Mr. Williams will be assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the relief effort. Mr. Williams, a HUD deputy assistant secretary, was previously in charge of HUD's Office of Affordable Housing Preservation, which is responsible for restructuring expiring federal rent subsidy contracts on privately owned multifamily properties. Meanwhile, the FHA has identified 3,410 foreclosed single-family houses in five Gulf Coast states that might provide shelter for families displaced by the hurricane and flooding. "We are currently inspecting our properties" to determine their condition, a HUD spokesman said.