ABSTRACT
In 1974, coinsurance was seen as a cure for the poor underwriting that plagued HUD's inner-city home insurance program. A corollary of the premise was that HUD's role in multifamily housing was to insure the maintenance of the existing unsubsidized stock. After the acquired property was sold, the lender could apply to HUD for payment of HUD's share of the loss. When HUD is losing hundreds of millions, a few million for staff that could prevent some "fraud, waste, and abuse" would seem a prudent use of money. There may not have been much waste but oh was there an abundance of misuse of power, arrogance, greed, hypocrisy and a little bit of fraud. At the center of HUD's concentric circles of shame was the binary star, the team of Secretary Sam Pierce and Debbie Dean. In the mix of Washington scandals HUD ranks as historically less important than the Iran-contra and financially less costly than the S&L crisis.
