American Housing Policy

The 1992 election of President Bill Clinton rescued housing, cities, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from the obscurity to which they had been relegated by the Reagan and Bush administrations. How much the Clinton Administration does for cities and housing-that is, what level of resources will ultimately be directed to cities and housing-remains to be seen. For the moment, however, there is little doubt that the problems of urban America in general, and of housing in particular, are back on the national agenda:History teaches that new presidents and new administrations often take new approaches to housing policy. What directions should the Clinton Administration take? Should it break completely with past housing policies and programs, and consider fundamentally new ap­ proaches-perhaps those pioneered at the local level in places like Boston and San Francisco? Or should it continue and expand the pro­ grams and institutions that have successfully weathered the indiffer­ ence of the last twelve years? Where those programs and policies have been successful, should the Administration build on them