ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the performance of three major low income housing programs with respect to the social and economic criteria of maximizing aggregate housing consumption, promoting equal residential opportunities, closing the housing gap in the most cost effective manner, and equitably redistributing housing consumption. It suggests that national housing policy should be redirected toward these more consumer-oriented strategies, although it is likely that this approach meet great resistance from powerful production-oriented lobby groups. Growing federal involvement in the housing market, dissatisfaction with existing subsidy approaches, and stepped-up efforts to evaluate social welfare programs have generated interest in the formulation of a more effective federal housing strategy. Federal housing programs have both direct and indirect effects on housing consumption. To measure the aggregate effect of federally assisted programs on housing consumption, it is necessary to trace the adjustments of the existing stock which result from the addition of subsidized units through new construction, extensive rehabilitation, and the leasing of existing housing.
