Experimenting with Housing Allowances – Executive Summary: The Final Comprehensive Report of the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment

This historic report provides a condensed account of the findings of the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment, a 10-year research experiment conducted by the Rand Corporation on behalf of HUD in the housing markets of Green Bay, Wisconsin and South Bend, Indiana. During the experiment, a non-profit housing allowance office under contract to HUD and the local housing authority opened in each market and began offering monthly cash payments to low-income households in order to either obtain decent housing or offset the cost of their existing housing arrangements. Participant households were required to keep their lodgings to certain standards, enforced by inspections. From 1974 – 1980, enrollment was open to all low-income households across the nation, and the experiment ultimately made payments to 20,000 households. The comprehensive findings, titled “Experimenting with Housing Allowances,” was published as a book.