be uniform in all programs. This would be achieved automatically under a new and simplified approach, as suggested above. In the meantime, the Task Force 22. RECOMMENDS that (a) the Secretary of HUD be authorized to set income levels for assisted housing; (b) income be the full test of eligibility; and (c) income and deductions be treated uniformly in all programs for purposes of determining eligibility. 6. ELIMINATION OF THE WORKABLE PROGRAM It becomes increasingly apparent that the concept of the workable program, though conceived with constructive intent, is in practice all too often a barrier to getting action on federally-assisted housing and in particular to getting action on housing for the very poor. Also, local approval can and often does prevent the use of federal programs—public housing, rent supplements and leasing—where they are urgently needed. Accordingly, the Task Force 23. PROPOSES elimination of the workable program provision and similar requirements from all federal housing programs and the substitution of a finding by HUD that a proposed project meets program objectives. 7. INCREASED USE OF LEASED HOUSING FACILITIES The Task Force has a favorable impression of recent programs which make use of leased housing facilities (Section 23 leased housing programs). These programs have flexibility, provide for private development and ownership, include opportunities for homeownership, and have been concentrated largely on properties that remain on community tax rolls. The Task Force therefore (24) RECOMMENDS that (a) greater emphasis be placed on leased housing programs; (b) a wider range of rent subsidies be provided for them; (c) their homeownership features be emphasized; (d) legislation specifically provide for new construction under these programs; (e) incentives and requirements be devised to encourage participating communities (to require them, if neces sary) to improve site selection and provide better local facilities and services; and (f) employers of large numbers of workers be encouraged to sponsor projects of this type. 8. ENLISTING PRIVATE SECTOR The Task Force commends the recent trend toward involving the private sector-industry, nonprofit sponsors and community groups— in the production of public housing and in other subsidized housing programs. To stimulate further the production of low-income housing otherwise lacking strong sponsorship, the Task Force emphasizes the need for strong and broadly-based support for the National Corporation of Housing Partnerships. Progress has been impeded, however, by delays in the funding of federal programs, in obtaining approval of project sites, and in processing applications. In this connection the Task Force (25) RECOMMENDS especially that emphasis be placed on the development of a more rapid delivery system and, in particular, that an effort be made to facilitate Turnkey I processing, to encourage Section 23 and 10(c) leasing, and to enlist the efforts of community groups in social and community service. 9. MANAGEMENT TRAINING The success of any housing project is largely dependent on having a management which is capable and efficient and which understands the needs and problems of low-income families. These skills are in short supply, however, and training programs are virtually nonexistent. Therefore, the Task Force (26) URGES that training programs for housing project management get underway as promptly as possible. The Task Force notes the efforts of HUD to promote the training of public housing families for involvement in project management, and recommends that consideration be given to a major expansion of such programs. CHAPTER V Rural Housing The Task Force is clear in its purpose to increase substantially the housing opportunities of all Americans of low income. While it has underscored the needs of the urban ghetto because of their urgency and magnitude, it is no less sensitive to the great and pressing needs of lowincome rural families, especially farm laborers, migratory workers, and American Indians. Moreover, the Task Force is confident that its recommendations on financing, the revision and administration of existing programs, and income maintenance would, if carried out with adequate funding and imagination, go a long way toward meeting the needs of these groups. It may be, however, that certain organizational changes are also needed. At present, the federal government's housing effort is fragmented among a number of departments and agencies, mainly in HUD but also in Agriculture, Defense, Interior, the Veterans Administration and elsewhere. In the interest of achieving a more unified and effective national housing effort, the Task Force 27. URGES that an interagency group be established within the Executive Branch to determine whether a unified national housing effort should be accomplished by coordination through HUD, or by integration into HUD, of the housing and housing-related programs of other federal departments and agencies. CHAPTER VI Discrimination It is the earnest conviction of the Task Force that a major obstacle to housing for low-income families is rooted in residential segregation—racial and economic. A family's living environment is a major factor in the difference between real and inadequate opportunity for advancement. In addition to a good home, a meaningful chance for upward economic and social mobility requires a good school system, proximity to a good job, and good community facilities. Discrimination as to race and color is most evident in site availability, and in particular in the availability of sites for low-income housing. Hence, the Task Force 28. URGES the federal government to use the full extent of its influence to overcome racial and economic discrimination as an obstacle to the development of its housing programs, and to use eligibility to participate in federal housing assistance and community-assistance programs to this end. In addition, it should assure that standards of site selection are uniform in all federally assisted housing programs. Also, the Task Force 29. BELIEVES that minorities must be involved at every level of housing production, ownership, operation and management. HUD should stress the need for this participation within its own organization. Furthermore, in project processing and approval, HUD should work with sponsors, developers, managers and others to achieve these results. CHAPTER VII Income Maintenance Inadequate housing is only one facet of the low-income problem. Inadequate food and nutrition, health care, education and inadequate employment opportunities represent other equally pressing problems. It becomes increasingly apparent, therefore, as programs to meet many of these needs grow more costly and administratively more tangled and vexing, that at some point the federal government must decide whether it will continue to approach them as it has in the past-largely through specialized categorical assistance programs, of which subsidized housing is an example or whether it will aim to accomplish its objectives through some form of income maintenance. The Task Force recognizes the enormous fiscal implications of a full income-maintenance program, but urges that greater reliance be placed on that approach as a means for providing housing for low-income families. Accordingly, the Task Force 30. RECOMMENDS that, consistent with responsible fiscal management, steps be taken toward a system of income maintenance and away from federal assistance programs of the categorical type. In this connection it endorses with enthusiasm the principle of the Administration's family-assistance proposals in pending welfare legislation. |