Public and Assisted Housing

The government's family self-sufficiency program was created in 1990 to coordinate federal public housing, Indian housing, and section 8 rental housing assistance with public and private support services. The program, by linking housing assistance with support services, like education and job training, seeks to help lower income families attain economic independence and become homeowners. This report discusses (1) the program's status, (2) actions by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to coordinate its efforts with those of other federal agencies that will fund the support services needed for the program, and (3) HUD efforts to determine how much to reimburse local housing agencies for the costs of operating their family self-sufficiency programs.

GAO found that: (1) 90 percent of the additional public housing, Indian housing, and section 8 certificates and vouchers that HUD will provide with fiscal years 1991 and 1992 funds will go toward section 8 certificates and vouchers; (2) significant FSS program activity, including selecting FSS families and providing supportive services, is not likely to occur before 1994; (3) the number of families assisted under FSS awards is small compared to the number of families assisted through the public and Indian housing and section 8 certificates and voucher programs; (4) FSS programs will become mandatory in fiscal year 1993 for all public housing agencies (PHA) receiving new public housing and section 8 assistance, unless HUD determines that they are exempt; (5) HUD is coordinating its self-sufficiency efforts with other federal agencies; (6) the FSS program requires that PHA and Indian housing authorities (IHA) perform new duties, such as arranging for supportive services provided by others, selecting FSS participants, and monitoring participants' progress; (7) determining the appropriate compensation for PHA and IHA operating FSS programs will be difficult, since there is a lack of comprehensive cost data on PHA and IHA costs to operate FSS programs differences in the way PHA and IHA carry out FSS program responsibilities, and differences in funding public and Indian housing and section 8 assistance programs; and (8) HUD will provide PHA and IHA with additional operating subsidies to pay for certain costs associated with operating FSS programs.