CHICAGO (AP):

President-elect Barack Obama yesterday named New York City's housing commissioner to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, turning to a former Clinton administration aide with a national reputation for developing affordable housing.

Obama praised Shaun Donovan for his record at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he managed a $7.5 billion plan that put a half million New Yorkers in affordable housing. The Harvard-educated architect also kept foreclosures away from New York's low- and moderate-income home-ownership plan, with just five foreclosures out of 17,000 participating homes.

New energy

"We can't keep throwing money at the problem, hoping for a different result," Obama said during his radio address released early yesterday. "We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new, efficient style of leadership. We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities just won't do."

Obama said the mortgage crisis has threatened cities, but it also provides a chance to rethink how the Cabinet agency can help urban residents. He said Donovan, who also has a graduate degree in public service from Harvard, will bring "fresh thinking unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas".

Obama's selection of Donovan marks the 11th post he has filled in his cabinet, in just over a month since his election as the nation's first African-American president. Still to come are announcements of his selections to head the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the departments of energy, education, interior, labour, transportation and agriculture.

Speculation

The appointment of Donovan, a white male, was something of a surprise for a department which, in recent administrations, has been led by someone who is a minority. Most speculation had centered around Miami Mayor Manny Díaz, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin or Bronx borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr.

Latino groups were pushing heavily for Díaz, following in the footsteps of President Bill Clinton appointee Henry Cisneros of San Antonio, Texas. President George W. Bush picked Mel Martínez of Florida, a Hispanic, and Alphonso Jackson of Texas, an African American.

Even the rollout of the selection - announced at 6 a.m. Saturday via email and later in Obama's Saturday radio address - broke with how Obama has announced previous Cabinet positions. For his other appointees, Obama invited reporters to a news conference, along with the nominee, and took questions.

Obama's last news conference on Thursday, to introduce former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as his pick for Health and Human Services, was dominated by questions about the corruption scandal swirling around Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of putting Obama's Senate seat up for sale. Obama has said he is confident none of his aides were involved in any of the alleged deals.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg named Donovan, a New York native, to head the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development in 2004. He has been the point person for implementing Bloomberg's plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 people by 2013. It is the largest housing plan in the nation.

Donovan took a leave of absence as New York's housing commissioner to campaign for Obama.

Before working for Bloomberg, he worked at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company. And before that, during the Clinton administration, he was deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing at the department he is now to head. In that role, he was the government's chief administrator for managing privately owned, government-subsidised housing. The housing subsidy programmes provided over $9 billion annually to 1.7 million families.