Housing and Urban Development: Public and Assisted Housing Reform
(Testimony, 10/13/95, GAO/T-RCED-96-25).

Current federal housing programs are seen as overly regulated and
leading to warehousing of the poor, and Congress is asking state and
local governments to assume a larger role in defining how the programs
work. Congress is now reconsidering the most basic aspects of public
housing policy--whom it will house, the resources devoted to it, the
amount of existing housing stock that will be retained, and the rules
under which it will operate. These statements provide GAO's views on
legislation pending before Congress--S. 1260 and H.R. 2406--that would
overhaul federal housing policy. GAO testified that the two bills
contain provisions that will likely improve the long-term viability of
public housing, such as allowing mixed incomes in public housing and
conversion of some public housing to housing vouchers or tenant-based
assistance when that makes the most sense. GAO also supports provisions
to significantly beef up the Department of Housing and Urban
Development's (HUD) authority to intervene in the management of troubled
housing authorities, but GAO cautions that questions remain about the
reliability of the oversight system that HUD uses to designate these
agencies as "troubled."

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-RCED-96-25
     TITLE:  Housing and Urban Development: Public and Assisted Housing 
             Reform
      DATE:  10/13/95
   SUBJECT:  Community development programs
             Public housing
             Proposed legislation
             Rent policies
             Cost control
             Disadvantaged persons
             Housing programs
             Cost effectiveness analysis
             Subsidies
             Fair market value
IDENTIFIER:  HUD Section 8 Certificate Program
             HUD Section 8 Voucher Program
             Chicago (IL)
             East St. Louis (IL)
             Detroit (MI)
             HUD Reinvention Blueprint
             HUD Public Housing Management Assessment Program
             HUD Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Program
             
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