This paper discusses community-based housing programs from 1950’s tp 1980’s: Programs, purposes, successes, failures, bureaucracy, socioeconomics and outlook.
Since the 1940s the United States federal government has functioned as a primary force in the housing field. Recognizing the rights and needs of Americans to have adequate housing which was either not being met by the private sector or was beyond the financial means of a certain part of the citizenry, the federal government in the last 40 years has set up a wide variety of housing programs, spanning the range from FHA-insured mortgage loans to Model Cities projects. Recent developments in Washington, however, seem to prophesy an end to this: The federal government appears to be attempting to abandon its . . . role of providing various types of assistance for those whom the …