Housing and Urban Development
Reform and Reinvention Issues Gao ID: T-RCED-95-129 March 14, 1995The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) suffers from severe organizational and managerial problems that it is still in the early stages of addressing. Because HUD's problems involve large federal loan commitments and discretionary spending, controlling the agency's spending will require the reexamination of federal housing and community development policies and HUD's mission. This testimony focuses on (1) long-standing management shortcomings at HUD and the agency's progress in addressing them; (2) problems that HUD and Congress face in public and assisted housing programs, which account for the bulk of HUD's outlays; (3) the challenges that HUD faces in restructuring its programs and mechanisms for delivering them; and (4) fundamental questions that should be answered in considering future housing and community development policies.