This Report presents the working papers which have been prepared by the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing (NCSDPH) to introduce to the United States Congress its findings and evaluation of severely distressed public housing. This chapter serves as an introductory chapter to the other chapters which follow.

Congress established the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing through the 1989 National Affordable Housing Act (Public Law 101-235). The Commission was assigned the following tasks:

1. To identify those public housing developments in the Nation that are in a severe Slate of distress;
2. To assess the most promising strategies to improve the conditions of severe distress that have been implemented by public housing authorities and other government agencies; and
3. To develop a National Action Plan to eliminate the conditions that contribute to unfit t living conditions in public housing developments determined by the year 2000.

This report is part of the collection of scanned historical documents available to the public.