In capstone event, former secretary of housing and urban development speaks on social innovation, public safety and the future of housing
By Eric Ruble
If you ask Julián Castro, to win in the midterm elections, Democrats must address affordable housing and student loan debt.
“The affordability crisis is ratcheting up, and it’s ratcheting up everywhere,” said Castro, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under former President Barack Obama. “We need to focus more on housing as an issue. It never gets the investment or the attention that it deserves at the local, state or federal level. That means we have to be particularly creative.”
Castro, who also served as mayor of San Antonio for five years, was on USC’s campus recently for a discussion with Price Center for Social Innovation Director Gary Painter. The conversation was the final event in a series celebrating the Price Center’s 10th anniversary.
A ground-up approach
Castro said even the largest federal policies need to start with a local lens.

“You’re only going to be successful if you get the buy-in from the community,” he said. “You need to begin by listening. It doesn’t begin by dictating.”
While HUD secretary, Castro oversaw Obama’s Promise Zones initiative, which established five areas around the country – including in Los Angeles – to improve economic opportunity through partnerships with community organizations and the private sector.
“Coalitions are incredibly important to getting the work done,” said Castro, who was USC Price’s commencement speaker in 2017.
He said that too often, governments live up to their reputation for bureaucracy and endless red tape. To limit that, he urged leaders to show their progress and achievements – something the media has accused the Biden Administration of doing poorly.
“You have to operationalize these policies and you have to make sure that they’re working,” Castro said. “For those of us who are progressive, if they’re not working, then you’re spending money that you should be spending in a different way to actually help people.”
Showing results, he says, “encourages folks to keep going and dig in even deeper. Sometimes that’s hard at the federal level.”

Winning in November
Castro said in addition to addressing the housing crisis, the Biden Administration should take bold action on student loan debt. The president promised to forgive a minimum of $10,000 per person during his 2020 campaign but has not yet done so.
Castro said he left law school with about $81,000 in debt.
“That’s nothing today compared to what some people leave with,” he said. “[It is] politically smart to cancel student loan debt ahead of the 2022 midterms.”
The former secretary also believes Democrats need to act on police reform. He said that since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, “it has been very frustrating” to witness inaction from city and federal leaders.
He pointed to Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) program as an example of tangible change cities can take. Through the Denver program, mental health clinicians respond to low-risk calls alongside paramedics.
“It is time to be more innovative and more committed to thinking differently about how we can be effective with public safety,” Castro said.
The future of social innovation
Social innovation is based on the principle that we can improve people’s quality of life in low-income, urban communities by trying new approaches the same way a company uses research and development to launch new products. The Price Center defines social innovation as an iterative, inclusive process that intends to generate more effective and just solutions to complex social problems.
It aligns well with Castro’s political ethos.
“I believe government has a role to play in making people’s lives better,” Castro said.
He said this was a somewhat unpopular viewpoint while growing up in the Reagan era, but he credits his activist mother for his perspective.

He says to operate effectively, there must be collaboration between the private and public sectors.
Painter agreed.
“We actually need to disrupt the current outcome – whether it’s the level of inequality we have or the level of housing insecurity we have,” Painter said. “We’re at a time now when I think we might be willing to do that collectively.”
Castro said data-based research like that provided by the Price Center is critical because it allows policymakers to act quickly when they have the support needed to advance a progressive issue forward.
“When we have that moment,” Castro said, “it’s especially important that we have the scholarship, the research, the evidence to get the policy work done so we can get the investments made and then make sure that those investments are well-spent and reach the people that need them.”
Learn more about the Price Center for Social Innovation’s 10th anniversary on its website.