Testing Public Housing Deregulation

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Started as a depression-era initiative intended to contribute to economic recovery, slum elimination, and the provision of safe, decent, low-cost housing, the nation's premier low-rent public housing program has evolved and changed in various ways over its almost seven-decade history. Yet there have been two overriding constants throughout this period. Public housing properties were not expected to be built or operated using private-market principles, nor was it intended that they be controlled independently by the housing agencies responsible for developing and managing them. Subject to neither market nor local standards, public housing program rules and practices have been the province of extensive federal directive and regulation.

Although controversial throughout its history, by the 1990s the public housing program had become subjected to tremendous fiscal and political pressures and demands for fundamental program change. One reform option proposed by some program advocates involved devolution and increased deregulation. In part to test the consequences of such an option, a small-scale demonstration initiative called Moving to Work (MTW) was enacted. This is a summary of a more extensive report on the experiences of the first several years of that demonstration, concentrating on the activities and experiences of the initial cohort of 18 participating housing agencies.¹

Notes from this section

1. See Housing Agency Responses to Federal Deregulation: An Assessment of HUD's "Moving to Work" Demonstration, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, January 2004, http://www.hud.gov/utilities/intercept.cfm?/offices/pih/programs/ph/mtw/evalreport.pdf.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

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