Housing Allowances: Lessons from the Supply Experiment,
Abstract
HUD's Experimental Housing Assistance Program (EHAP) consisted of several complementary experiments, each conducted in two or more of twelve sites that ranged from major metropolitan areas to rural counties. The Rand Corporation designed and conducted the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment in Brown County, Wisconsin (whose central city is Green Bay), and St. Joseph County, Indiana (whose central city is South Bend). The Supply Experiment's principal purpose was to learn how a fullscale allowance program would affect the housing market in which it was conducted. Beginning in 1974, we operated programs in each site that were open to all low-income renters and homeowners, and have monitored both the programs and the housing markets. Because early findings on market effects have been reported in other forums, this paper does not address that topic. Instead, it explains how a housing allowance program works and how the experimental program has affected those who participated in it: How many and what kinds of households have enrolled, what they did to meet the program's housing standards, how their housing expenditures changed after enrollment, and by how much their housing was improved. The paper concludes with comments on the policy implications of our findings.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA094940
Entities
People
- Ira S. Lowry
Organizations
- RAND Corporation