Multifamily Housing:

Impediments to Disposition of Properties Owned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development

T-RCED-93-37, May 12, 1993

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GAO discussed the impediments to the sale of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) multi-family property. GAO noted that: (1) the shortage of project-based federal housing preservation funding was the most significant impediment to the HUD multi-family property disposition program; (2) federal housing law requires that HUD preserve housing for 15 years; (3) the annual cost of preserving and foreclosing HUD-owned property could total $4 billion; (4) HUD has not received sufficient Section 8 funding to dispose of its inventory or meet the preservation requirement because of budgetary constraints and interdepartmental program funding competition; and (5) in 1992, HUD incurred $248 million in operating and debt service expenses due to the differences in property revenue and property expenses.