The First Twenty Years of HUD

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Abstract
Largely through a combination of presidential commitment and an effective supporting coalition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secured congressional approval and funding for several major innovative programs in the middle and late 1960s. The action signaled a dramatic rise in the national priority of housing and related urban problems. Beginning with the Nixon moratorium on subsidized housing in 1973, however, the department was weakened by a pattern of taking off in one direction and then changing quickly to another. In the process, ambitious innovations never had a chance to settle down and make adjustments as they went along. The department's effectiveness and morale suffered. This atmosphere—after abating somewhat in the early Carter years—culminated with the Reagan administration's dramatic redirection of housing and urban development policy. Drastic reduction in housing assistance, sustained de facto subsidies to non-poor homeowners, and cuts in federal housing credit and community development programs typify the Reagan approach.

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