On Tuesday afternoon, the Democratic politician hosted an online town hall on social media platform Twitter, in what may be a first for Housing and Urban Development director Julian Castro (HUD didn't confirm).
This is the best of what the general public wished to ask the HUD head.
While his main focus was to answer questions about homeownership, he also answered on his challenges he faces in being HUD’s secretary.
People also asked him important questions about immigration, how to aid the LGBT community, improving homelessness, affordable housing for people with criminal records, domestic violence housing and much more.
Being an important, Hispanic figure, Castro also received questions on what he thought about the Latino homeownership is growing and will continue to grow.
Castro also showed how laid back he can be by answering questions about whether Atlanta is a great place to move to after graduation, on giving advice to current college students, on whether San Antonio or Austin would win in a taco war, on whether he was drinking scotch in a video he posted, on what was the most recent book he had read and his favorite song Cyndi Lauper song.
Here is a list of the best questions people asked Secretary Castro during his town hall, along with his answers.
[Edit note: Due to a technical glitch we can only present tweets in simple Q&A format. This is being resolved. Please visit Castro's Twitter bio to see the entire conversation.]
Q: @SecretaryCastro, what is HUD doing to ensure people w/ criminal records have greater access to #affordablehousing? #AskSecCastro #CJreform
A: HUD teamed up w/ DOJ to provide grants to public housing authorities to help young residents w/ record expungement
Q: How does VAWA protect victims of domestic violence in housing, and how is this implemented at the PHA level? #AskSecCastro
A: Everyone should feel safe in their home but if not @HUDgov enforces #VAWA to help survivors.
Q: How are you supporting #LGBTQ youth who are experiencing homelessness? @HUDgov #AskSecCastro
A: We're working w/ @TrueColorsFund to give #LGBTQ youth a safe space to be themselves.
