The Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing: Its Behavior and Accomplishments

In March 1990, Secretary Jack Kemp of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) appointed a 22-member commission to investigate the nature and extent of regulatory barriers to affordable housing, as well as what to do about them. Chaired by Thomas Keane, ex-Republican governor of New Jersey, the Advisory Commission on Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing grappled with this issue for over a year, releasing its final report in early July 1991. As a commission member, I had an unusual opportunity to observe just how the commission worked and what it accomplished. This paper tries to put those two subjects in perspective. It has been written from the viewpoint of a longtime specialist on housing, who also served on the very first urban commission–the Douglas commission–23 years ago.

Anthony Downs

Housing Policy Debate

1991

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