Why do projects fail? The question is perplexing to anyone who has looked carefully at two projects, located in the same area, similar in design and construction, occupied originally by similar families, yet, after only a few years, dramatically different in physical condition, social behavior and financial viability. One is a good residential environment, the other is dilapidated and half-empty. Everyone involved, from tenants to mortgage bankers to Federal officials, has explanations and proposals. But none of the explanations can account adequately for the failures, and every proposal draws opposition from other participants in the complicated business of providing subsidized housing. The only indisputable fact is that increasing numbers of projects continue to default and are foreclosed. Over 20% of the three-quarters of a million units of Federally insured subsidized 221(d)(3) and 236 multifamily housing in the U.S. are in projects that have defaulted on mortgage payments at some time. More will fail in the future.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.