Federal Housing Policy during Reagan Administration

The President agreed to these increases, in order to obtain an expansion of the voucher program for low-income trapping assistance.

Thus, the federal official official lodgement policy during the tenure of the Reagan Administration was by and large Reagan policy. Most federal accommodate programs lively when Reagan entered stain did anticipate in effect while he was in office; however, their funding was reduced in all instances ( congressional Quarterly, 1988; Congressional Quarterly, 1986).

Upon come in office, President Reagan cited national caparison shortages and housing blight as evidence of what he termed as the failure of past federal social programs (Congressional Quarterly, 1986). He said further that the policy of his organization would be to (a) reduce the federal role in puzzle out housing problems, while (b) increasing incentives for private sector entities to generate solutions to these problems.

The President was effective in persuading Congress to accept important reductions in federal housing programs. Reagan's sharpest cuts in federal housing funding were in the area of housing subsidies, "particularly for programs to trace housing for the poor" (Congressional Quarterly, 1986). During the 1981-1984 time period (Reagan's first term), federal funding from subsidized housing was reduced from approximately $30 billion per socio-economic class to approximately $10 billion per year (Congressional Quarterly, 1986).

The Administration also persuaded Congress to enact a program which provided an incentive for landlords, developers, and builders to rehabilitate existing decaying housing. These incentives were provided in the form of federal income-tax exemptions, as opposed to material federal disbursements in the forms of subsidies. The Reagan Administration claimed that the rehabilitation program would take in an increase in the usable housing depot of a magnitude that would enable low-income families to be able to dress housing which would be low-cost with the support of federal housing vouchers.

The development of public policy in the United States, including that applicable to the provision of housing for the needy is highly political in character.

The politics of providing housing for the needy has long been tied fast to perceptions among the white majority in the American population. The three close significant of these perceptions are that: (a) something is wrong with people who require answer; if they require help, it is likely because of their own failures; (b) the presence of cultural differences in the United States is wrong; everyone in the United States should adopt a single set of American values; and (c) social assist needs and outcomes in the United States should be addressed and assessed at heart the framework of white, middle-class norms (Weber, 1986).

The macro statistics, however, are misleading. The residential housing vacancy rate increased primarily because tens of thousands of families were no bimestrial able to afford housing. First, through the redefinition of poverty, thousands of working poor families were no longer eligible for federal housing assistance of some(prenominal) kind (Main, 1986). Second, thousands of families eligible for housing vouchers could not find affordable housing even with the use of housing vouchers (Ehrlich, 1988).

Who, then, are the dispossessed? Some reliable data do exist which trace the homeless. The major problems with t
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