In June 1983, the U.S. House of Representatives mandated the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct a study to determine the physical renovation needs of the nation's Public and Indian Housing stock and to estimate the cost of correcting deficiencies and subsequently maintaining that housing stock in adequate physical condition. The Housing and Community Development Act of 1987 repeated that mandate. Congressional and HUD interest was spurred by concern that the current Comprehensive Improvement Assistance Program (the major existing program for funding the modernization of Public Housing) might not be meeting the needs of certain segments of the aging inventory.

Beginning in December 1983, Abt Associates Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed and conducted a comprehensive survey of the modernization needs of a representative sample of Public and Indian Housing developments throughout the country. Some 2,194 dwelling units and 3,120 residential buildings at 1,000 Public Housing developments were inspected by more than 80 architects and engineers utilizing specially designed methods of measuring and costing modernization needs.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.