Frank Cassidy announced Friday he has stepped down from his role as Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In an exclusive interview with Scotsman Guide, he said that while he’s no longer working in the administration, he plans “to use my voice as the highest-ranking Trump administration housing finance official now on the outside to advocate for the president’s housing agenda and help make housing more affordable for the millions of Americans that need it.”
He called serving “a great honor,” but noted his wife had been eight months pregnant when he got the call from the White House in February 2025, right after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. After starting work that April, Cassidy went through Senate confirmation process, where he was confirmed with bipartisan support.
Since starting the role, he had been commuting back and forth between Philadelphia and the capital, which kept him away from his family.
“It was a 24/7 job and I’m ready to spend more time with my family, young daughter, and get back to the private sector,” Cassidy said. “I felt like I put my time in. I got a lot done.”
On the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act
Cassidy said he plans to fight for passage of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. The legislation passed the House of Representatives on May 20 with strong bipartisan support, though it has not advanced through the Senate.
He predicts the bill “will be the biggest piece of housing legislation to ever pass. It will have far winding effects.”
Saying it “will affect our kids and our grandkids,” Cassidy praised President Donald Trump’s “bold leadership in calling the housing crisis what it is and enabling his appointees to deregulate and streamline.”
He predicts the act will be passed before midterm elections. “I really am hopeful, and I’m going to use my voice to encourage Congress, the Senate and the House to come together and pass that bill. It looks like they’re getting very close, but there’s a lot of great stuff in there.”
Manufactured housing
In addition to his responsibilities as FHA Commissioner, Cassidy oversaw HUD’s Office of Manufactured Housing, which oversees the design, building and installation of manufactured homes. He said the proposals in the ROAD to Housing legislation are “pretty interesting in that regard.”
Manufactured housing is only ever seen as being a one-story building, he said, citing the steel chassis on the first floor. “you’ve never really been able to build second, third, and fourth stories,” Cassidy said, observing the legislation gets rid of the first-floor steel chassis requirement.
“It kind of combines the innovation and the technology for modular housing with manufactured housing,” he said, adding that the regulations would give builders one set of standards across the country.
Cassidy cites the 50 different sets of regulations in 50 states as the issue. “The ability to have one set of standards across the housing product will make housing easier and cheaper to build.”
Lowering the multifamily mortgage insurance premium
One of his proudest achievements in his role came from the multifamily industry, where he helped recalibrate and lower the multifamily mortgage insurance premium to 25 basis points across the board. “That’s the statutory minimum. We did it for all multifamily,” he said, pointing out programs 221d4, 223f, 241.
“Prior to that, there were about a dozen different categories and to get the 25 basis points minimum, you had to get your building certified as a green energy building.” He said the premiums had “added significant cost and burdensome reporting requirements” to the projects.
“We said, every multifamily program is going to get that minimum 25 basis points. Doesn’t matter if it’s green or energy star certification because the reality is, all these buildings nowadays are already being built to that standard.”
Revision of the loss mitigation waterfall
On the single-family side, Cassidy highlighted the revision to the loss mitigation waterfall, as the agency turned the page on COVID.
“COVID had been over for years, however, FHA single family portfolio was dealing with the churn of borrowers continuously seeking loan modifications on their single-family mortgages. Two, three, four times,” Cassidy said. “And a lot of times it was because we didn’t have a policy in place to prevent that. We obviously want to help people when they fall behind on their mortgage. But by revising that, we gave clear guidance.”
By limiting it to two modifications, Cassidy said it will save the FHA insurance fund billions of dollars moving forward.
Cassidy also featured “the great work we did bringing competition to the credit scoring practices for single-family loans. Opening up competition will allow more Americans who have made rent payments on time to build a credit score and thus receive a FHA insured mortgage.”
Mortgage insurance for healthcare facilities
HUD’s 232 program, which provided mortgage insurance for healthcare facilities, is an area Cassidy says is often overlooked. At $40 billion, it’s only 2% compared to HUD’s $2 trillion portfolio.
“Having come from the industry and having originated those deals and met with those borrowers and walked these facilities, I understood the process,” Cassidy said.
In his first week in the role, he met with the top staff in the 232 program. “We said, how are we going to fix the issue of a large number of projects sitting in the queue, taking two, three, four months just to get picked up by a FHA reviewer?”
He worked with the team and developed the “232 Express Lane.” Prioritizing low risk deals with repeat HUD borrowers, if basic criteria were met, “it’s a slam dunk deal.”
With the new system, some cases that might have taken up to a year to get closed, were closing in as little as 70 days.
“It had never been done before. I mean, that’s private sector speed. It’s faster than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac,” Cassidy said, expressing gratitude to the HUD team who worked on the 232 project. “To have those types of results coming out of a government agency, it was really historic and unheard of.”
For his next steps, Cassidy said he is looking forward to spending more time with family, and re-entering the private sector to the commercial mortgage banking agency financing world.
