On Monday, the nation gets a new secretary for the department of Housing and Urban Development.

Julian Castro is the former mayor of San Antonio, and HUD has served as an economic backstop during the financial meltdown.

“HUD is very important for people who are in some sort of credit recovery,” says Mark Goldman, who teaches real estate at San Diego State University.

And some expect big things from Castro because he served as a mayor; a political office known for hands-on, take-charge kinds of leaders.

“So they are proactive people once they get into federal office,” says Sheila Crowley is president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

But she says even the best leadership can’t bypass Congress.

“When you’ve got programs that are being starved, it’s just very hard to make progress,” says Crowley.