Housing Allowance Program Administration: Findings From the Supply Experiment. Housing Assistance Supply Experiment

摘要

This report synthesizes the findings of other studies of program administration in the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment, particularly those on administrative costs (Kingsley and Schlegel, 1979 and 1982) and eligibility certification (Rizor, forthcoming). It also presents new material evaluating alternative approaches to performing the various administrative functions required in a housing allowance program. Housing allowance programs were established in Brown County, Wis., and St. Joseph County, Ind. The programs were administrered by Housing Allowance Offices (HAO's), which are nonprofit corporations. In their first 5 years, the HAO's enrolled 29,800 households and disbursed 428,300 monthly allowance payment checks to those who met program housing requirements. The HAO's performed four functions: outreach, eligibility certification (or enrollment) and recertification, housing certification and recertification, and payments operation. The effectiveness and efficiency of program administration at the two sites is reviewed and factors that influenced performance are examined. Based on this analysis, implications are explored for regular operating programs, both for a national housing allowance program and for other programs with similar functions. The review covers July 1974 through June 1979 in Brown County and April 1975 through March 1980 in St. Joseph County. The report concludes that successful administration was due to the limited nature of HAO administrative functions and the HAOs' implementation of a series of management techniques (formal training programs, intensive quality control, reliance on management information systems, and accounting systems that relate costs to output). Figures, tables, footnotes, about 30 references, and appended standards for the Brown County program are supplied. (Author abstract modified).