Toward a New National Housing Policy

the National Housing Task Force, as well as two other reports used to prepare it. The Task Force's main recommendation is a ma-jor new housing supply initiative to address the worsening problems of low-income rent-ers. The Low Income Housing Preservation Commission's report proposes ways to save two million units of privately owned and federally subsidized low-income rental units currently in jeopardy. The National Confer-ence of State Legislatures report identifies a number of state strategies for making hous-ing affordable to low-income families. The broad coverage, up-to-date analyses, and provocative suggestions make these reports an important resource for planners and policymakers. When Congress passed the 1949 Housing Act, it established the goal of "a decent home and a suitable living environment for every family. " I Substantial progress has been made since then. For example, the incidence of substandard housing has declined sharply over the last forty years (Apgar 1985).Never-theless, much work remains, as shown by the growing numbers of homeless in cities across the nation. Congressional recognition of a continu-ing housing crisis led to the creation of the National Housing Task Force in 1987. Its aim was to investigate how the goals of the 1949Housing Act could be attained by effec-tively combining both public and private re-sources. The Task Force was privately ini-tiated and financed and was comprised of individuals drawn from the areas of bank-ing, business, community service, and local government. Critical to the Task Force's evaluation was a series of position papers from seventy-two interest groups and other commentators submitted to the House and Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Af-fairs Committees and twenty draft reports prepared by scholars under the direction o