Endorsing the thrust and concept of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's experimental program entitled "The Housing Allowance Program"

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MEMORANDUM. OF UNDERSTANDING between THE CIVIL CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA and THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (hereinafter called "HUD") , an agency of the United States Government, as a part of its Exper- imental Housing Allowance Program, wishes to undertake a housing allowance experiment (hereinafter called the "Experiment") within a number of metro- politan areas of the United States. In these experiments, families will receive direct housing allowance payments to assist them in the rental, maintenance of ownership, or purchase of suitable housing. These exper- iments are designed to test this direct form of housing assistance for possible enactment as a full-scale national program. To accomplish this objective HUD wishes to replicate a full-scale national program of housing allowances in the St. Joseph County metropolitan area. This "Supply Experiment" is designed to obtain important information about the effects of housing allowances upon the housing market and to answer such questions as: How and to what extent does the increased purchasing power of housing allowance recipients get translated into increased rents or house sales prices -- by increases in real housing services to the occupant, or, by largely inflationary rent and house sales price rises? When large numbers of eligible families participate in the program, do they tend to move out of their neighborhoods and, if so, where do they move? Do minority groups seek more dispersed residential locations when broader choices are available to them through housing allowances? How are these housing choices shaped by bankers, realtors, and others in the resi- dential housing business? What is the impact on families not receiving housing allowances? All groups involved -- landlords, allowance recipients, non-recipients, and others -- will be periodically interviewed to obtain reliable measures of changes in housing quality, prices and other market responses. This information will then be systematically analyzed and evaluated. _ 1 _