Homelessness

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Farmers Home Administration, and the Resolution Trust Corporation have all developed procedures for choosing properties from their inventories for sale or lease to nonprofit groups that assist the homeless. Through fiscal year 1992, the four agencies had sold about 560 single family properties and leased nearly 2,000 to homeless groups on terms more favorable than offered to the general public. HUD accounted for more than 90 percent of this activity. At the time of these transactions, the four agencies had nationwide inventories of about 41,000 other single family properties available for purchase and 4,000 available for lease. Homeless groups see a great need for, and are interested in acquiring, federal foreclosed properties, but only about five percent of those in GAO's national survey had done so. GAO found lack of information to be the main barrier for organizations that had not participated in the agencies' programs. Organizations face additional barriers once they obtain enough information and decide to participate. Those participating in HUD's program overwhelmingly cited the costs they were expected to pay and difficulty in getting funding from federal and other sources as the main roadblocks to their acquiring more property. Although these groups find multifamily housing useful, they have obtained almost none from the four programs.

GAO found that: (1) each agency has procedures for selecting eligible properties for sale or lease to nonprofit organizations, but they limit the availability of properties because of their need to meet competing objectives; (2) the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) program has accounted for more than 90 percent of the properties sold or leased and 80 percent of the properties in inventory; (3) four agencies have made changes to their programs to make more properties available; (4) about 95 percent of the homelessness assistance organizations have not participated in any of the programs primarily due to the lack of information on the programs, available properties, and knowledge of acquisition procedures; (5) the agencies and the homelessness coordinating council have initiated the organizations' suggested improvements for the outreach programs; (6) federal agencies need to intensify their outreach efforts to interested organizations; (7) significant barriers to organizations obtaining federal properties include acquisition, rehabilitation, operating costs, and financing difficulties; and (8) homelessness assistance organizations have a great need for multifamily properties, but few properties are available because HUD does not currently include such properties in its program.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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