ABSTRACT
The major risk the conventional developer takes is the market risk. For each housing market, HUD would set a market rental for new units taking into account the size of the apartments. If the market is tight there would be a benefit without a cost to the government. Most poor rely on the low end of the rental market for their housing. The public housing agency (PHA) will have the opportunity to broaden its role from that of a landlord of a given amount of real estate to that of a facilitator of housing opportunities for low income families. If the long waiting lists are true indicators of the attractiveness of public housing most PHAs would have no difficulty in moving comfortably into the new program. The basic funding will come from the debt service and operating subsidy to the PHA allocated to the units participating in the demonstration.
