Public Housing Authorities in the Private Market

ABSTRACT

Decreasing federal resources since the 1980s, policy devolution to the local level, and expansion of market-based approaches for affordable housing delivery have resulted in public housing authorities (PHAs) evolving from public organizations to hybrid organizations that encompass public and private characteristics. Although federal rules guide their implementation of U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) programs, PHAs are created locally under state authorizing legislation. Under what conditions do PHAs create new affordable housing using their ability to employ both public and private means of service delivery? Although PHAs have the ability to create new units outside the traditional assisted stock, no clear estimate of the number of units created using these newer means exists, or even a count of how many PHAs are engaging in such activities. Descriptive analysis allows for estimates of this basic information. A multivariate analysis using data from a national survey of PHAs, content analysis of state enabling legislation, and publicly available data sets suggests that whereas the local market context partially predicts affordable housing ownership outside of the public housing program, state enabling legislation and local institutional relationships also facilitate housing production. We estimate that in 2013, PHAs owned more than 150,000 units outside of the traditional HUD-assisted housing stock.

KEYWORDS:

• low-income housing
• rental housing
• affordability
• hybrid organizations
• public housing authorities
• affordable housing development

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Quasi-public organizations are private corporations that have the backing of the government.

2. HOPE stands for Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere.

3. In the public housing program, PHAs traditionally engaged in centralized management of their entire housing portfolio, with a centralized waiting list, maintenance, and property management. In 1998, QHWRA mandated asset-based management, moving PHAs to site-based management of public housing—managing them in parallel to how privately owned affordable management is managed. This means that public housing is managed as part of a portfolio of assets, with site-based waiting lists, maintenance, and property management.

4. Mixed finance is the ability for public housing authorities to use public capital funds to leverage private investment in housing.

5. HUD sets the FMR for a given metropolitan housing market annually, usually at the 40th percentile rent of the housing stock for a given size unit, although some flexibility exists in small-market areas or expensive markets.

6. The LIHTC is managed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It provides tax credits that are allocated by state housing finance agencies to housing development projects. It is the largest affordable housing construction program in the United States, and has been in place since 1987.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Garshick Kleit

Rachel Garshick Kleit is a professor of city and regional planning in the Ohio State University (OSU)’s Knowlton School of Architecture, and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs in OSU’s College of Engineering. Her research focuses on the social impacts of affordable housing and public housing authorities as developers. She holds a PhD in city and regional planning from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She has published widely in scholarly journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association, Housing Policy Debate, Housing Studies, Journal of Regional Science, Journal of Urban Affairs, Social Networks, and Urban Studies.

Whitney Airgood-Obrycki

Whitney Airgood-Obrycki is a senior research analyst at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. She holds a PhD in city and regional planning from the Ohio State University. Her work focuses on rental housing affordability, housing policy, and suburban neighborhood change.

Anaid Yerena

Anaid Yerena is an assistant professor of urban studies at the University of Washington Tacoma. Her research interests include housing and community development in the United States and Mexico, advocacy organizations, social inequality, and urban governance. Her work investigates the factors influencing local affordable housing policies and practices, with a particular focus on the impact of community organizations on public decision-making processes. As a secondary area of research, she is interested in the emerging field of e-government. Her previous work was published in Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Public Management and Social Policy, and Housing Studies.