Henry Cisneros Leading The Creation Of Workforce Housing

"After Henry Cisneros resigned as housing secretary in 1996 amid an embarrassing independent-counsel investigation, he put aside his passion for making a difference in U.S. cities in favor of a more pressing matter: making money."

"Now Mr. Cisneros is back in the housing fray as chairman of CityView, a California start-up that finances and develops housing for modest-income earners, who often can't afford to live where they work. In three years, CityView has financed about 4,000 homes from South San Francisco, Calif., to Boulder, Colo., to Pflugerville, Texas, at prices ranging from less than $100,000 to more than $500,000."

"Mr. Cisneros's venture highlights a small but growing move by U.S. home builders into housing for the urban work force, including both big, publicly traded companies such as KB Home and closely held firms such as John Laing Homes."

[Editor's note: Although this article is only available to WSJ subscribers, it is available to Planetizen readers for free through the link below for a period of seven days.]