Housing Consumption in a Housing Allowance Program. Housing Assistance Supply Experiment

摘要

The report analyzes how the Housing Allowance Program, conducted as part of the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment, affected the housing consumption and budgetary allocation of allowance recipients. The allowance program was open to virtually all low - income households living in the experimental sites -- Brown County, Wis., and St. Joseph County, Ind. Those who enrolled in the allowance program were offered monthly cash payments that began as soon as they were certified eligible and their dwellings were certified as meeting the housing allowance office (HAO) housing standards. The HAO housing standards combined with recipients' housing preferences to alter their housing consumption and budgets in several ways. As measured by expenditures, both renters and owners increased their housing consumption by about 8 percent. Nearly a third of each group who would otherwise have lived in substandard housing instead occupied dwellings that met generally accepted safety and sanitation standards. Renters increased their housing consumption mainly by moving to better dwellings or by not moving to worse ones; homeowners increased their housing consumption mainly by repairing their homes. Renter recipients spent about a sixth and owner recipients a fifth of their allowance to increase their housing consumption, with the remainder going to other goods and services. Although housing allowances cause only modest increases in recipients' housing consumption, the increase per program dollar is twice that caused by either public housing or unrestricted cash grants. In short, housing allowances are much more efficient than public housing in using public funds to benefit low - income families, especially to improve their housing. Figures, tables, program data, and 20 references are provided.