Urban housing policy in the 1990s

Recent decades have witnessed some resolution of certain long‐standing concerns of urban housing policy. Other issues, including the limited availability of affordable rental units, mortgage finance—related constraints on homeownership, reduced housing and income assistance to very low income populations, and problems of equal opportunity to housing and housing finance, remain at the forefront of the national policy debate. A variety of initiatives provide opportunities for efficiency gains in the pursuit of housing policy goals. These include the reformation of the Federal Housing Administration, consolidation of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development programs, transformation of the public housing system, enhanced underwriting flexibility by government‐sponsored enterprises, and their introduction of new mortgage instruments. However, sizable cuts in federal rental housing and income supports, together with the loss from the stock and the diminished production of low‐income rental housing, will undoubtedly result in economic distress among the lowest income renter populations.