Institutional Myopia and Policy Distortions: The Promotion of Homeownership for the Poor

Housing is acknowledged to be a national problem in the United States. The precise nature of that problem, however, is largely unspecified-and certainly not an element of policy consensus. Most policies are directed at relatively short-term fixes, ranging from providing more shelter space to offering homeownership status to lowand moderate-income households. The myopic perspective of policymakers was well visible in the 1960s provision of loan subsidies to developers in return for inclusion of lowand moderate-income rental housing in their projects. That housing supply evaporated as the loans were paid off and the requirements lifted; this pattern is one source of the current crisis. The emphasis on homeownership evident in the federal policies that emerged in the 1980s similarly takes a short-term view Stegman 1991. An infusion of cash may be able to solve immediate acquisition problems and permit lower income households to attain ownership. The rhetorical rationale for the promotion of ownership is that it will improve the stability of housing tenure and increase