Housing Policy at a Crossroads

John C. Weicher

Description

Since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, American housing policy has focused on building homes for the poor. But seventy-five years of federal housing projects have not significantly ameliorated crime, decreased unemployment, or improved health; recent reforms have failed to revitalize low-income neighborhoods or stimulate the economy. To be successful in the twenty-first century, American housing policy must stop reinventing failed programs. Housing Policy at a Crossroads: The Why, How, and Who of Assistance Programs provides a comprehensive survey of past low-income housing programs, including public and subsidized housing, tax credits for developers, and block grants for state and local governments. John C. Weicher's comparative analysis of these programs yields several key conclusions: Affordability, not quality, is the most pressing challenge for housing policy today; of all the housing programs, vouchers have provided the most choice for the poor at the lowest cost to the taxpayer; because vouchers are much less expensive than public or subsidized housing, future subsidized projects would be an inefficient use of resources; vouchers should be offered only to the poorest members of society, ensuring that aid is available to those who need it most. At once a history of housing policy, a guide to issues confronting policymakers, and a case for vouchers as the cheapest, most effective solution, Housing Policy at a Crossroads is a timely warning that reinventing failed building programs would be a very costly wrong turn for America.

Sujets

• City Planning
• Public Policy
• Political Science
• Urban Development

Informations

• Publié par: AEI Press
• Date de parution: 16 décembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780844743370
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Housing Policy at a Crossroads
Housing Policy at a Crossroads
The Why, How, and Who of Assistance Programs
John C. Weicher



The AEI Press

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WASHINGTON, D.C.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weicher, John C.
Housing policy at a crossroads : the why, how, and who of assistance programs / John C. Weicher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8447-4258-8
ISBN-10: 0-8447-4258-9
1. Housing policy—United States. 2. Low-income housing—United States. 3. Housing subsidies—United States. I. Title.
HD7293.W362 2010
363.5'80973—dc22
2010000106

© 2012 by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the American Enterprise Institute except in the case of brief quotations embodied in news articles, critical articles, or reviews. The views expressed in the publications of the American Enterprise Institute are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff, advisory panels, officers, or trustees of AEI.
Printed in the United States of America
To Alice, who married me just before I unexpectedly became involved in housing policy, and has been my companion and advisor ever since.
List of Tables 2-1
Income Limits and Income by Household Size, 2009 25 2-2
Households with Priority Housing Problems, 2009 (“Worst-Case Needs”) 28 2-3
Housing Problems for Households Living in Assisted Housing, 2003 30 2-4
Households with Priority Problems, 2009 32 2-5
Housing Problems by Income for Renters, 2009 34 2-6
Housing Problems of Poor Renters Compared to Extremely Low-Income Renters, 2009 36 2-7
“Worst-Case Needs” and Other Problems, 1978–2009 37 2-8
Housing Quality, 1974–2009 41 2-9
Housing Quality, 1940–1970 43 2-10
Rent Burden, 1960–2009 49 2-11
Changes in Rents and Incomes, 1950–2009 52 4-1
Budget Authority for Low-Income Housing, 1977–2010 105 4-2
Incremental Subsidized Housing Units, 1977–2010 108 4-3
Incremental and Nonincremental HUD Budget Authority for Assisted Housing, 1977–2010 111 4-4 Outlays for Low-Income Housing, 1977–2010 112 4-5
Total Assisted Housing Units, 1941–2010 114 4-6
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Units Placed in Service, Income and Receipt of Other Subsidies 116 4A-1
HUD Budget Authority Accounts for Subsidized Housing 120 4A-2
HUD Outlay Accounts for Subsidized Housing 121 5-1
Extent of Housing Quality Improvement by Program, 1979 135 5-2
Subjective Rating of Housing Quality by Assisted Housing Program, 2003 140 5-3
Subjective Judgment of Housing Improvement for Non-Elderly Assisted Households Moving during Previous Year, 2003 143 5-4
Measures of Affordability by Program 148 5-5
Household Characteristics by Program 157 5-6
Concentration of Voucher Holders by Census Tract, 1998 163 6-1
Neighborhood Characteristics of Assisted Households by Program, 2008 169 6-2
Location of Assisted Housing by Tract Characteristics 170 6-3
Neighborhood Poverty Rates by Program, 1998 171 6-4
Subjective Rating of Neighborhood by Assisted Housing Program, 2003 173 6-5
Subjective Judgment of Neighborhood Change for Non-Elderly Assisted Households Moving during Previous Year, 2003 176 7-1
Household Income and Unit Characteristics by Program 207 7-2
Per-Unit Costs by Program 209 7-3
Monthly Costs of Project-Based and Tenant-Based Assistance 213 7-4
Median Household Income by Program, 1996–2008 215 7-5
Annual Federal per-Unit Cost of Subsidy Programs, 2010 217 7-6
Estimated Median Monthly Rents of Subsidized Units by Program, 1991 222 7-7
Cost of Tenant-Based Assistance and Ongoing Operation of Public Housing, 1980–2010 224 8-1
Estimates of Production Efficiency in Subsidized Housing Programs 230 8-2
Estimates of Consumption Efficiency in Subsidized Housing Programs 234 8-3
Estimates of Program Efficiency in Subsidized Housing Programs 237 8-4
Costs and Benefits of Project-Based and Tenant-Based Assistance 238 9-1
The Ability of Tenant-Based Assistance to Serve Low-Income Renters Living in Severely Inadequate Housing, 2003–2009 244 9-2
The Ability of Tenant-Based Assistance to Serve Low-Income Renters with Worst-Case Needs by MSA, 1987–1990 247
Preface
About thirty years ago, I wrote a book on housing policy in the United States ( Housing: Federal Policies and Programs, American Enterprise Institute, 1980). The book described the main objectives of federal policy, and explained how the various programs served, or did not serve, those objectives. It drew on my experiences at the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the mid-1970s, when the department confronted both scandals and high costs in some of the subsidy programs, and as a result implemented major—and controversial—policy changes.
The book was intended for an audience of policymakers and citizens concerned with housing issues. To my surprise, however, it found another audience—in the academic world, and specifically in the fields of real estate economics, public policy, and urban planning. As an academic friend told me, “It explains to our students how economists think about these issues, in nontechnical terms, and they need to know that.” Over the next decade or more, scholars in these fields still used the book, even as it became increasingly out of date. Indeed, during my service at HUD as Federal Housing Administration commissioner and assistant secretary for housing, I was more than once referred to my own 1980 book when I asked academic friends for nontechnical explanations of housing policies and programs that HUD colleagues might find useful.
That book, of course, is now almost completely out of date. Some programs that were very active in the late 1970s have been terminated; others have been substantially revamped. New programs have been created, sometimes embodying new forms of subsidy. Housing policy and housing programs have remained controversial, as evidenced most dramatically by a radical proposal by President Clinton in 1995 to “reinvent” HUD, to say nothing of occasional proposals to abolish the department. The interests of policymakers have changed; they now seek to use housing programs for different purposes than their predecessors.
Most importantly, a very large body of research about and relevant to assisted housing programs has developed in the years since my book appeared. To a large extent, this work has been sponsored by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research, which (despite an 80 percent reduction in real research funding since the mid-1970s) has worked consistently to illuminate major policy issues, evaluate the effectiveness of individual programs, and provide a context for housing policy by tracking the broader changes in the housing market.
In short, much has changed since my earlier book, and I am grateful to the National Research Initiative, under the leadership of Kim Dennis and Henry Olsen, and to the American Enterprise Institute and its former president Chris DeMuth, for offering me this opportunity to revisit the subject of housing policy.
Two recent books have reviewed assisted housing policy and programs: A Primer on U.S. Housing Markets and Housing Policy, by Richard K. Green and Stephen Malpezzi (Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press, 2003), and Housing Policy in the United States: Second Edition, by Alex F. Schwartz (New York: Routledge, 2010). These excellent books overlap with mine, but differ from it in important respects. As their title implies, Green and Malpezzi have a broad focus, and their discussion of assisted housing is relatively brief. Schwartz is more narrowly though not exclusively concerned with assisted housing programs, but he does not write from an economist’s perspective. Readers of my book will benefit by reading both of these; it is my hope that readers of these books will find mine useful as well.
A substantial number of people have helped me in writing this book. Much of what I know about assisted housing I have learned during various terms of public service at HUD, the first one beginning in 1973 and the last one ending in 2005. I have benefited greatly from the insights and suggestions of a number of former HUD colleagues. They are far too numerous to list, but I would like to thank especially Robert W. Gray, Jill Khadduri, Kathryn P. Nelson, James W. Stimpson, and Margaret Young.
I have also benefited from the good work of a series of research assistants and associates, listed here in chronological order: Theresa Firestine, Philip Schuster, Richard Goggins, Richard Jacobson, Megan Dorman, Margaret Mailander, Van T. Nguyen, Brett McCully, David M. Block, and Akshay Bajaj. Daniel Broxterman, my colleague at the Center for Housing and Financial Markets at Hudson Institute, was especially helpful in organizing program data. Edgar Olsen, whom I first met and worked with at HUD many years ago, read early versions of several chapters and offered useful comments. I am grateful to all of these former colleagues and associates. The photograph of the subsidized housing project on the cover was taken by Philip Ross. Samuel Thernstrom and Laura Harbold (formerly of AEI Press), Martin Morse Wooster, and Anne Himmelfarb carefully and conscientiously edited the manuscript for publication, strengthening and clarifying it in the process.
I remain fully responsible for any errors and for all conclusions and interpretations.
Introduction
Ever since the New Deal, the goal of American housing policy has been to provide decent