The Nation : HUD to Distribute More Rent Vouchers

Federal housing officials plan to significantly increase the number of people getting vouchers to help pay their rent, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. said. The voucher program, the Reagan Administration’s alternative to building more public housing, now assists about 100,000 low-income families, with another 34,000 to be added by the fall, Pierce told a House Appropriations subcommittee. HUD plans to add another 100,000 families in 1989, he said. Rather than subsidizing housing units, the program gives poor families a voucher which can be used to pay a portion of the rent on living space they choose for themselves. The value of the voucher is fixed according to each family’s income, leaving the amount of additional rent flexible. The program was made permanent by Congress last year.