uarterly, 1988; Congressional Quarterly, 1986).
Upon entering office, President Reagan cited national housing shortages and housing blight as evidence of what he termed as the failure of past federal social programs (Congressional Quarterly, 1986). He said further that the policy of his administration would be to (a) reduce the federal role in solving housing problems, while (b) increasing incentives for private sector entities to provide solutions to these problems.
The President was effective in persuading Congress to accept substantial reductions in federal housing programs. Reagan's sharpest cuts in federal housing funding were in the area of housing subsidies, "particularly for programs to construct housing for the poor" (Congressional Quarterly, 1986). During the 1981-1984 time period (Reagan's first term), federal funding from subsidized housing was reduced from approximately $30 billion per year to approximately $10 billion per year (Congressional Quarterly, 1986).
President Carter had proposed 254,500 federally subsidized housing units for fiscal 1981, and 260,000 for fiscal 1982. The President persuaded Congress to reduce these levels to 210,000 and 153,000, respectively. By 1984, the number of federally subsidized housing units was down to 100,000.
In the place of traditional construction programs, Reagan proposed the issuance of vouchers to poor families, which these families could apply like cash toward paying the rent on housing they were able to find on the market. Under the existing subsidy programs, landlords, developers, or builders we re provided a subsidy to encourage the construction of low-income housing. In return for keeping rents low for qualified low-income families, the suppliers received a subsidy equal to the difference between the market price of a rental unit and the amount that a low-income family could afford to pay for that rental unit (Congressional Quarterly, 1986).
The Admi...