Andrew Cuomo, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Clinton and founder of Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (H.E.L.P.), will deliver the George Warren Brown School of Social Work Benjamin Youngdahl lecture for the Assembly Series at 11 a.m. March 17 in Graham Chapel.
The title of Cuomo’s address is “Are We Our Brother’s Keeper?”
Cuomo has spent almost 20 years solving housing problems in America. He became the second-youngest cabinet member in history as HUD secretary from 1997-2001. He is credited with instituting major reforms within the department, and his programs won the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award.
As a HUD assistant secretary in 1993, Cuomo developed the “Continuum of Care Strategy” to help homeless people become self-supporting.
He received praise in 2000 for negotiating a historic agreement with gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson that changed the design, distribution and marketing of guns to make them safer and help keep them out of the hands of children and criminals.
In 1986, he founded H.E.L.P., which has become the nation’s largest private provider of transitional housing for the homeless. In addition, H.E.L.P. provides education, job training, drug and alcohol abuse treatment and mental-health services.
“The Youngdahl Lecture is the School of Social Work’s major offering to the University and the St. Louis community every year,” said Shanti K. Khinduka, Ph.D., dean and the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor.
“This year, as we celebrate our 150th anniversary, it is especially significant. At a time when many other issues are threatening to displace the social concerns of our nation from the public agenda, we recognize our obligation to the socially marginalized.”
After a 2002 gubernatorial campaign in New York, Cuomo returned to serve as co-chair of H.E.L.P.
In 2003, he edited Crossroads: The Future of American Politics, a collection of essays on America’s 21st-century political landscape with contributors ranging from Clinton to rapper Sean (P. Diddy) Combs. Former Vice President Al Gore called the book a “thoughtful collection of essays” and referred to Cuomo as “one of the keenest political analysts in our country.”
Cuomo is a graduate of Fordham University and Albany Law School.
Assembly Series lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, call 935-4620 or go online to wupa.wustl.edu/assembly.
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