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Multifamily Housing: More Accessible HUD Data Could Help Efforts to Preserve Housing for Low-Income Tenants

GAO-04-20 Published: Jan 23, 2004. Publicly Released: Feb 23, 2004.
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Highlights

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has subsidized the development of over 23,000 properties by offering owners favorable long-term mortgage financing or rental assistance payments in exchange for owners' commitment to house low-income tenants. When owners pay off mortgages--the mortgages "mature"--the subsidized financing ends, raising the possibility of rent increases. GAO was asked to determine the number of HUD mortgages that are scheduled to mature in the next 10 years, the potential impact on tenants, and what HUD and others can do to keep these properties affordable.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Housing and Urban Development To help state and local housing agencies track HUD-subsidized properties that may leave HUD's programs upon mortgage maturity or for other reasons, the Secretary of HUD should solicit the views of state and local agencies to determine (1) the specific information concerning HUD-subsidized properties that would be most useful to their affordability preservation efforts and (2) the most effective format for making this information available, and then use the results to modify the current means of conveying the data on these properties to make the data more widely available and useful.
Closed – Implemented
In a letter dated April 23, 2004, HUD wrote that it would (1) create a new page on HUD's website that provides relevant data on HUD projects that can be printed without the need for separate database management software, by April 30, 2004, (2) obtain input from the 4 trade associations used in the GAO survey by May 31, 2004, and (2) incorporate any suggestions in an expanded database by August 30, 2004, which will be updated annually. In letters dated October 1, 2004, to the executive directors of the 4 organizations included in the GAO report survey, HUD's Director, Office of Asset Management (1)informed the organizations of an additional listing on HUD's website done in response to the GAO report that identifies all subsidized projects with mortgages that mature over the next 10 years and requested that they inform the HUD websites (2)requested feedback as to preferred formats and file layouts.

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Topics

Federal aid for housingLoan interest ratesLow income housingMortgage programsRent subsidiesRental housingRental ratesMortgagesHousing assistanceTenants