The Evolution Of Public Housing Policy In The United States

This dissertation is an attempt to describe and highlight the process and dynamics of the urban housing policy of the United States. It will focus principally on changes of low-income housing policy, and examine the three federal housing guarantee modes, including the public housing program, the housing construction subsidy program and the rental subsidy program.The dissertation begins with an introduction which includes a review of the literature, a brief analysis on the housing guarantee and public housing, and an explanation of main ideas, methods and significance of this research.Chapter 1 describes the idea of public housing which was derived from late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century designs for better housing the urban low-income families, and examines the birth of federal housing policies during World War I.Chapter 2 carries the housing story into the Great Depression-New Deal era. It analyzes the origins of New Deal housing policies, and emphasizes the public housing programs under the Public Works Administration, and the public housing projects initiated by the first public housing act of the United States enacted in 1937.Chapter 3 focuses on the federal public housing programs in urban renewal. The policymaker opted for slum clearance with the passage of major housing acts in 1949 (urban redevelopment) and 1954 (urban renewal), while the provision of low-income housing assumed secondary importance.Chapter 4 analyzes two new types of federal housing subsidy programs during the 1960s. One was a direct demand-side subsidy program named "the rent supplement program" and initiated by the Housing Act of 1965, the other was a supply-side subsidy program that offered subsidies for builders to supply decent housing for low- and moderate-income families by the Housing Act of 1968.Chapter 5 discusses the section 8 Existing Housing Program (also known as the rental certificate program) authorized by the Housing Act of 1974. It signaled a significant shift in the federal housing strategy from supply-side housing subsidy programs to demand-side approaches. Chapter 6 explores the rental voucher program, the housing choice voucher program, the HOPE VI program, and other new directions of federal housing policy since 1980. The rental voucher program since 1984 was similar to the rental certificate program, but it allowed families more options in housing selection. The housing choice voucher program since 1998 finally combined the Certificate and Voucher Programs. The HOPE VI program since 1992 was a national action plan to improve the severely distressed public housing.Chapter 7 compares and assesses the abilities of the three housing guarantee modes (the public housing program, the demand-side subsidy program and the supply-side subsidy program) to meet supply objectives and equity objectives.Chapter 8 provides an overview of the main national(regional)housingpolicies in other countries(reg i ons), and compares the three housing guarantee modes in a more extensive field.Epilogue summarizes the main factors which affected the changes of the federal low-income housing policy, and provides some suggestions on how to utilize the different types of housing guarantee modes.