The Federal government has shown an increased interest in the capacity of non profit organizations to produce and manage affordable housing. This interest is demonstrated in the special role created for nonprofits in legislation such as the Stewart B.McKinney Act of 1988, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, and the Low Income Housing Preservation and Resident Home ownership Act of 1990, as well as in Federal programs such as HOME, HOPE, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit(LIHTC).

Despite the involvement of non profits in housing production for more than two decades and the emphasis now being given to nonprofit housing development, in recent years there has been no systematic comparative examination of the development costs incurred by these organizations or the financing approaches utilized. Primary reasons for the lack of research are that, until recently, non profits were viewed as minor actors in housing production and that a common cost and funding framework for collecting complete data on resources and uses in affordable housing projects did not exist. The significant range of organizational types, populations served, and financing approaches encompassed by nonprofit developers also rendered very difficult the task of structuring systematic and comparative reserch.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.