Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Reexamining the Purpose and Effects of Housing Assistance (Urban Institute Report, 92-3)

Policy debate on housing assistance is moving from a focus on how best to alleviate poverty through decent housing alone to how best to reduce economic dependency more broadly. This book seeks to inform policymakers charged with reorienting housing assistance for the poor, by examining the fundamental issues that must be confronted in reconceptualizing housing policy as a tool for economic independence. This study is based on the premise that the two-channel housing assistance system-housing assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and shelter assistance from welfare programs under the Department of Health and Human Services-is unfair, ineffective, and inefficient. It looks at how policymakers have wrestled with the link between housing and social and economic advancement; describes local-level strategies being used to improve the existing system; and sorts out the possible effects of the economic independence principle on both housing assistance and welfare receipt.