Fundamental Housing Policy Reform

The proposed research is intended to overcome the ignorance that sustains the current [housing] system. With one exception, it involves writing papers for the key players in housing policy development, journalists, and the general public.

Because the evidence on cost-effectiveness of different methods for providing housing assistance is spread over more than 1,300 pages, mainly in inaccessible reports of government contractors many years ago, few people involved in current housing policy debates are familiar with it. It is important to get a definitive account of this evidence into print. In 2007, I propose to complete and submit for publication a survey of this evidence. This survey article is intended primarily for an audience of housing policy analysts. Possible outlets are the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management or Housing Policy Debate.

In 2007, I also propose to complete and submit for publication two monographs intended for a broader audience. One will be on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. The Tax Credit has accounted for the overwhelming majority of newly constructed subsidized units for low-income households in the United States during the past decade. It is also the fastest growing program of housing assistance to low-income families. It has become our second largest program, surpassing the much older Public Housing Program. Given its size and rate of growth, the Tax Credit Program has received remarkably little critical scrutiny. The purposes of this monograph are to evaluate the arguments that have been used to justify the program, describe how the program works, analyze the incentives within the program for excessive costs and other perverse outcomes (at least from the perspective of almost all taxpayers), provide data on the size and growth of the program and the types of households served, summarize and appraise the available evidence on program effects, point out the major gaps in our knowledge, and present evidence on the effects of similar programs when direct evidence on the tax credit program is not available. A second monograph on fundamental housing policy reform will describe the evidence that supports the proposed reforms, provide a detailed description of the reforms and a proposed transition to the new system that avoids harm to current beneficiaries, and address objections to these reforms.