Reports Offer Statistical Snapshot of Federally Subsidized Renters
Housing researchers, policymakers, and practitioners need look no further for the most comprehensive and authoritative source of local and national data on federally assisted housing programs. A Picture of Subsidized Households, recently released in print and on the Internet by HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research, features previously unavailable local-level information on a wide range of public and assisted housing programs from HUD's own information management systems.
The new 11-volume series of reports provides the most recent data available at the level of individual housing projects, neighborhoods (census tract), housing authorities, States, and the entire United States. Much of the report data, such as information on household income, poverty, size, race or ethnicity, number of children, the spatial concentration of assisted households, and neighborhood characteristics, may help answer the following pressing policy questions: Where are the households that will be affected by welfare reform? What are their characteristics? Where are affordable housing opportunities in relation to areas of ethnic and economic concentrations? Are areas of assisted housing experiencing higher rates of crime than other neighborhoods? These reports can aid such investigations.
The reports already identify several national patterns, including the following:
- One-quarter of households earn income from wages and one-fifth receive welfare. The average income of subsidized households is $8,800 per year.
- One-third of subsidized households are elderly, more than one-half are minority, and slightly less than one-half include a single adult with children.
- The average subsidized unit is in a neighborhood where one-eighth of neighborhood residents are living in subsidized housing, one-quarter are poor, and one-half are minorities.
- Households spend an average of 6 years in a housing subsidy program, and recent arrivals waited an average of 18 months to enter their programs.
The programs covered in the series include Public and Indian Housing, several components of the Section 8 program (certificates and vouchers, moderate rehabilitation, and new and substantial construction), Section 236, other HUD subsidies, and projects developed with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Volumes 1 through 10 of A Picture of Subsidized Households describe each region:
- New England (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont).
- New York and New Jersey.
- Mid-Atlantic (District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia).
- Southeast (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the Virgin Islands).
- Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin).
- Southwest (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas).
- Great Plains (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska).
- Rocky Mountains (Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming).
- Pacific (Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Mariana Islands).
- Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington).
Volume 11 covers large projects and agencies throughout the United States.
Each volume of A Picture of Subsidized Households is now available from HUD USER for $5. Data for the Nation or for each State may be viewed or downloaded from the HUD USER World Wide Web site.
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