The State - News from May 25, 1988

A federal judge in San Francisco has approved partial settlement of a suit challenging the Reagan Administration’s $500-million plan to auction nearly 300 mortgages on private low-income housing projects around the nation. U.S. District Judge Robert Peckham, who halted the sales in July, 1987, at the request of low-price housing advocates, approved an agreement that would allow sale of 166 of the low-income rental units. The agreement allows the Department of Housing and Urban Development to sell the value of the expected cash flow from the projects but retain legal title, said Catherine Bishop, attorney for the National Housing Law Project. The 166 projects, scattered around the country, house from 32,000 to 48,000 low-income tenants, Bishop said. Prior to Peckham’s 1987 order blocking closure of the sales, HUD officials accepted 31 bids totaling $87 million for mortgages with book values of $104 million.