powers of local general-purpose government. 

 However, we do not know whether the sum of 

 such local decisions will give adequate recognition 

 to national concerns, particularly for those groups 

 having special or minority needs. 



Rental housing remains a continuing need for 

 many families, but in a time of growing consumer 

 protest, changing landlord/tenant rights, rent con- 

 trol, high mortgage interest, high property taxes, 

 spiraling energy costs and wage rates, and difficul- 

 ties in obtaining satisfactory maintenance and re- 

 pair services, rental housing no longer seems an 

 attractive risk to many investors. Diminished mul- 

 tifamily building activity, condominium conver- 

 sions of existing units, and multifamily building 

 abandonments are supporting signs of this. But 

 these indications are not yet confirmable as hard 

 fact, and in the meantime Federal tax reform and 

 other policies may be adopted that may further 

 reduce investment incentives in rental property. 



Local and Federal tax policies appear to encour- 

 age "urban sprawl" by making it cheaper for land- 

 lords to operate a newly built unit in a suburban 

 location than an existing unit in the city. They also 

 appear to discourage urban property rehabilitation 

 through increased assessments for improvements, 

 thus perhaps helping to perpetuate building and 

 neighborhood decay. Suggestions for tax reform 

 go back many years, yet the data and information 



available to policymakers evidently have not been 

 convincing enough to bring change. 



We have much scattered data on the families 

 currently served by HUD programs but not in an 

 easily usable form. However, we have relatively 

 little data on those with serious housing needs or 

 those eligible for HUD programs. In a recent intra- 

 government discussion of program options, it was 

 thus possible for two major agencies to disagree 

 widely on the percentage of eligibles currently 

 being served. 



The problems of crime, vandalism, and security 

 in housing remain of great concern. Much of the 

 effort to deal with these problems has gone into 

 hardware and fortress-like solutions, despite the 

 fact that such data as are available indicate that 

 fortress solutions are seldom effective and often 

 increase the fears of occupants. Recent intuitive, 

 "territorial" solutions, based on group action and 

 relatively minimal structural change, appear prom- 

 ising, but we do not yet have definitive results on 

 which to require a shift in program direction. 



The foregoing examples have merely been illus- 

 trative of the great diversity and scope of basic 

 questions in the urban housing field. They repre- 

 sent problems that touch nearly all our citizens in a 

 direct and often profound way. It is urgent that we 

 find and focus resources to resolve them. 



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HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 



