ABSTRACT
Devolution in federal housing policy since the 1980s has altered federal regulation and financial support for public housing authorities (PHAs), providing the opportunity for them to become surprisingly flexible organizations that, in the right local circumstances, could become effective community actors in affordable housing delivery and preservation. The growing, market-based policy emphasis since the 1980s is hastening PHAs’ widespread evolution into hybrid organizations that employ private sector methods and financing to meet their public missions. Strategic actions that work out conflicts among rival public, private, and social interests may be entrepreneurial rather than bureaucratic, and thus begin to have them resemble social enterprises.
The chapter outlines federal policy responses to the problem of maintaining quality public housing, and summarizes the policy transformation that blends private sector resources with those of the public housing program. Additionally, the federal emphasis on asset management as well as private production and ownership of affordable housing has created a context for market-based actions for PHAs. The chapter suggests that the ability of PHAs to work as true social enterprises varies, in part, according to their local charter under state enabling legislation. A national survey of PHAs and a content analysis of enabling legislation in the 48 contiguous U.S. states provide a description of these variations and a basis for speculation about the future of PHAs as social enterprises. Over the past decade, the U.S. has experienced extraordinary growth in housing need combined with a lack of investment in affordable housing for the very poor and the political demise of public housing. Therefore, deliberately refocusing and supporting PHAs’ efforts on housing preservation and construction using combinations of federal, state, and local resources may be one under-utilized path for the provision of affordable housing in the U.S.
