Andrew Cuomo was sworn in as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate in January 1997. President Clinton called Cuomo "the best person in this country who is today suited to lead HUD into the 21st Century."

Cuomo began reinventing HUD with a historic Management Reform Plan in 1997. The plan cracked down on waste, fraud and abuse, and addressed decades-old management problems at the department. Key reforms that were implemented include: creation of an Enforcement Center headed by an FBI agent; the first comprehensive inspection of all housing subsidized or insured by HUD; creation of more efficient "back-office" processing centers, along with storefront offices to serve the public; major improvements in HUD's financial systems; and creation of Community Builder employees.

In 2000, Cuomo led HUD efforts to negotiate a historic agreement with America's largest handgun manufacturer. The agreement requires Smith & Wesson to change the design, distribution and marketing of guns to make them safer and to help keep them out of the hands of children and criminals.

In 1993, Cuomo came to HUD as an Assistant Secretary and was responsible for community and economic development, job creation, affordable housing and homeless programs. He developed the Continuum of Care strategy to help homeless people become self-supporting. He also created a consolidated planning process that gave communities and residents a greater role in determining how HUD funds should be utilized. The Continuum of Care strategy and the consolidated plan have won Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award.

Cuomo is the first HUD Secretary to have built and operated housing developments. He founded Housing Enterprise for the Less Privileged (H.E.L.P.) in 1986, which grew to become the nation's largest private provider of transitional housing for the homeless. It provided education, job training, treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, mental health services, and emergency and transitional housing to help homeless people turn their lives around and become self-supporting. In 1988, Cuomo gave up his law practice to work full-time running H.E.L.P. in New York City. In 1991, while continuing to run H.E.L.P., he became head of the New York City Commission on the Homeless. The Commission achieved wide acclaim for its accomplishments.

After receiving a bachelor's degree from Fordham University in 1979 and a law degree from Albany Law School in 1982, Cuomo became campaign manager for his father, Mario M. Cuomo, in the elder Cuomo's 1982 race for Governor of New York. Andrew Cuomo spent a year and accepted an annual salary of just $1 as a key aide to Governor Cuomo. He then practiced law as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan in 1984-85, and as a partner in a New York City law firm in 1985-88.