Director Of Hud Housing Programs Resigns -- He Says He Wants To Rejoin Family In Denver

The embattled interim director of the federal public and Indian housing programs has called it quits.

Kevin Marchman, assistant secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said he is leaving the post to spend more time with his family in Denver.

Marchman had failed to get Senate confirmation, in part because of concern over widespread abuses in tribal housing on Native-American reservations.

He had been dogged at congressional hearings by a poster-size blow-up of a 5,300-square-foot house built on his watch with HUD money at the Tulalip Tribes reservation west of Marysville.

But Marchman said the rocky period at HUD did not influence his decision to resign.

Cites family concerns

"My family did not come with me when I came to Washington," he said in an interview. "I've missed too many birthday parties, too many soccer games. My 16-year-old daughter called me and said, `We need you at home.' "

His wife, daughter and 5-year-old son live in Denver. Marchman said he hasn't lined up another job.

The timing of his resignation puzzled many at HUD. It came less than two months after President Clinton gave him an interim appointment to get around the stall on his confirmation in the Senate.

HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo declined to comment on Marchman's resignation. A spokesman provided a copy of the resignation letter and said that would serve as the agency's only statement on his departure.

Marchman's letter recounted successes in revamping the tribal-housing program over the past year and in reviving some of the nation's most troubled public-housing authorities.

However, he has been criticized for not doing enough at a series of hearings in the Senate and House during the past year.

Promised to revamp program

He faced angry members of Congress at hearings on the troubled tribal-housing program early in the year. Marchman promised to be a reformer and said a revamp of the program would "prevent what we saw at the Tulalip reservation."

The 5,300-square-foot home on the reservation was among dozens of cases of waste and abuse documented in a Seattle Times investigation of HUD's tribal-housing program that prompted the hearings.

Marchman was also criticized for spending more than $500,000 to move the tribal-housing division of his office in late 1996 from Washington, D.C., to Denver - a city where both he and his tribal-housing director had ties. Marchman's own office remained in Washington.

Marchman denied any personal motives, describing the move as an effort to bring the program closer to the tribes it serves. But it was unpopular with tribal leaders. And the decision was reversed last month, when a new tribal-housing director took over and announced she would move to Washington, D.C.

The issues came up again late last year at Marchman's confirmation hearing.

`Track record . . . tainted'

Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., a vocal critic of HUD, cited the Denver move and tribal-housing problems in holding up Marchman's confirmation.

"His track record was tainted," said a spokeswoman for Faircloth. "The move to Denver was only part of a larger picture."

Marchman received generally good marks at the Denver Housing Authority, which was mired in strife when he took over. He left there in 1994 to become HUD's top trouble-shooter. He was promoted two years ago to head the public and Indian housing program.

He served at a time HUD was under attack by Republicans and undergoing a staff cutback. He also directed an overhaul of tribal-housing regulations under a new law that reduced HUD's control over the program.

Deborah Nelson's phone message number is 206-464-2145. Her e-mail address is: dnel-new@seatimes.com

James V. Grimaldi's phone message number is 206-464-8550. His e-mail address is: jgri-new@seatimes.com