ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a disturbing urban problem—the rapid escalation of housing costs. It aims to evaluate Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary George Romney's effort to halt, or at least slow, rising housing costs through Operation Breakthrough—a much-publicized program to industrialize housing production and thereby to improve its efficiency. Rising housing costs make it more difficult for many families to afford good housing. High housing costs hurt the poor and the near poor most severely. HUD's efforts to control housing costs have been directed largely at making the home-building process more efficient through the application of mass production methods. Various existing producers of prefabricated housing participated in the Wilson Wyatt program, and new ones were created. HUD has tried to reduce housing costs primarily by mass producing the house itself. Mass production of housing is important, and someday it may be achieved.
