Public housing authorities and the challenge of developing affordable housing : the case of the Cambridge Housing Authority

As housing and rent prices continue to rise in cities in the United States, it is becoming increasingly difficult for very low-income households to find decent affordable housing. Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), who are the main providers of housing opportunities to this population, are limited in their capacity to develop more housing units or provide more housing choices. With the elimination of the public housing development fund, and the government restrictions on their subsidy programs, PHAs can do little to address the housing issues. This paper explores a two-vehicle model as a conceptual framework for high-performing PHAs to increase the supply of affordable housing in their communities. The first vehicle is the creation of a nonprofit affiliate, which allows PHAs to act more like private developers. The second vehicle is participation in the Moving to Work Demonstration Program (MTW), which deregulates the PHAs' subsidy programs. The Cambridge Housing Authority's (Massachusetts) successful use of the two-vehicle model is examined.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Samuels, George, 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Langley Keyes.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69762

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/69762