ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the tradeoffs and challenges to standard anthropological techniques which occur in evaluation research. The involvement of anthropologists in multi-disciplinary research teams involved in policy-relevant research has been accompanied by stresses, demands upon methodology and other challenges which are not generally found in traditional anthropological research. The Housing Assistance Supply Experiment was the largest of several elements of the Experimental Housing Allowance Program designed to help Housing and Urban Development and Congress decide whether a national program of direct cash assistance to eligible households is a feasible and desirable way to help them secure decent housing in a suitable living environment. The allowance program was open to all families and most single persons in the two sites who were unable to afford the standard cost of adequate housing on the local market without spending more than a fourth of their adjusted gross income.
