Direct Household Assistance and Block Grants

This paper has three purposes. Most of the paper summarizes the background, rationale, and proposals on housing assistance developed by the President's Commission on Housing–a Housing Payment Program to help low-income citizens pay housing costs in the existing housing market and a Housing Component for the Community Development Block Grant Program, A second purpose is to review some of the range of opinion on the Commission as it developed its proposals. Finally, I want to suggest that the credibility and potential support for the proposals are undermined currently by their being advanced in a climate of budget cutting for housing programs.