A Decent Home: Housing Policy in Perspective

This paper provides a selective review of two aspects of urban policy in the U.S. -- federal policy providing housing subsidies for lower income households, and federal support for urban redevelopment and physical renewal. The paper reviews four periods in the history of American housing policy, indicating the major equity and efficiency issues in delivering housing services, the factors affecting program costs, and the development of more effective programs. The paper also traces urban development policy from the urban renewal partnership sponsored by the 1949 Housing Act to the present, indicating the linkage between theories of intergovernmental fiscal relations and the evolution of programs. The analysis is mostly an exercise in positive economics, explicating the development of policies, their economic rationale, and economic consequences. However, inevitably, there is some attention paid to the normative aspects of these programs.