An economic model for low-cost housing projects: Program and policy evaluation

Abstract

In policy planning and administration for needs such as housing, there is at each level of government—Federal, State and Local respectively—a decreasing number of variables which government jurisdiction is able to influence realistically. Moreover, each addresses itself to somewhat dissimilar problems. One of the tasks of the planner and analyst is to define respective limits for officials in charge, to eliminate confusion about who should be responsible for influencing them.One approach now being developed to assist housing policy makers at each level in evolving legislation, policy, programs and project acceptance or rejection criteria is a model that employs simple mathematical equations to replicate the economics of the construction and operation process. The work thus far has been devoted to analyzing and documenting the factors influencing housing, developing the mathematical equations, writing the computer program, testing the various included factors' sensitivity and performing some simple subsidy test to examine the model's feasibility as an aid in formulating and evaluating public housing policy.