Gustavo Velasquez

Gustavo F. Velasquez is the Director of the California Department of Housing & Community Development.^[1] Between 2014 and 2017, Velasquez served as the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Gustavo Velasquez
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
In office June 24, 2014 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	John D. Trasviña
Succeeded by	Anna María Farías
Personal details
Born	(1972-12-01) December 1, 1972 (age 52) Oaxaca, Mexico
Political party	Democratic
Children	2
Education	University of Pennsylvania (BA, MPA)

Education

Velasquez was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. He received degrees from the University of Pennsylvania; B.A. in Public Administration and Political science; Master’s Degree^[2][3] in Government Administration. He also completed the Executive Program on Strategic Planning and Business Transformation at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.^[4]

Career

He worked for Congreso de Latinos Unidos^[5] in Philadelphia, as well as was Director of District of Columbia Office of Latino Affairs (OLA) and the Office of Human Rights (OHR).^[6][7] He was Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC)^[8] in the District of Columbia.

On January 16, 2014, President Obama nominated Velasquez for Assistant Secretary of the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. His nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 19, 2014.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14]} Velasquez served in this role until January 20, 2017.

On April 2, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Velasquez the Director of the Department of Housing & Community Development.