What Should Be Done with the Public Housing Program?

Efforts by the Reagan administration to discontinue production and to reduce the existing stock of public housing raise the question whether the nation needs a program that subsidizes the public ownership of rental housing. In this article I examine the advantages of the public housing program and its problems, then describe and analyze Reagan administration efforts to reduce the public housing stock. I also discuss the prospects for development of new public housing and suggest that community development organizations be viewed as desirable sponsors of public housing.