ABSTRACT
Federal community development assistance takes many forms. Amounts provided in the federal budget are much smaller than those provided through programs that subsidize investors in and operators of low-income housing, and in other cases, directly to low-income households to help them pay rent. These include major programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. Together, these programs each year spend over $30 billion, aid over 5 million low-income renting households, and support development of close to 100,000 new apartments. Their scale alone ensures that these funds will have important implications for community development. However, these resources could be used more effectively and purposively. The development of opportunity in low-income communities is just one example of goals that would be better served by wiser use of these resources. Achieving this improvement will require a basic rethinking and restructuring of the major federal low-income housing programs, as described in this chapter.
