This is a working document. The age of the data prevents any remaining errors in the data from being corrected, but we want to mention them in this documentation where possible. We have tried to minimize errors, but the data come from so many different sources that errors undoubtedly remain. Please tell us of each error that you find. The material was compiled by Paul Burke. Direct comments and corrections to Robert W. Gray at 202-708-4504 x5732. A Picture of Subsidized Households in the 1970s: Description of a Data File Data for Public & Indian Housing as of 1971-77 2 megabytes, which expand to 27 megabytes U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development Office of Policy Development & Research Office of Economic Affairs Division of Housing & Demographic Analysis Washington, DC July 31, 1997 INTRODUCTION In the 1970s, the main housing subsidy program for low income households was Public and Indian Housing, with 1.1 million units. These include Section 23 Leased Housing, which was run and reported by Public Housing Authorities. There were also a few hundred thousand units subsidized by: Rent Supplements, Sections 235 and 236 of the National Housing Act, Section 221d3 Below Market Interest Rate (BMIR), Section 202 direct loans for elderly projects, and Farmers Home Administration subsidies. Starting in 1975 there were subsidies under Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937 (this section was authorized in 1974). A fairly full analysis of the situation in 1973 is in Housing in the Seventies, listed in the Bibliography. Briefer descriptions are in Programs of HUD, also in the Bibliography. Besides these programs, welfare programs provided cash, which helped poor households pay for housing along with other expenses: Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), General Assistance, and the following three (which have since been combined into Supplemental Security Income, SSI, which often pays more than those older programs did): Old Age Assistance (OAA), Aid to the Blind (AB), and Aid to the Permanently and Totally Disabled (APTD). As we write, AFDC and Gereral Assistance are being reformed into Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). In the 1970s, as now, the deductibility of mortgage interest on income tax forms, and capital gains tax exclusions, helped middle and upper income homeowners. This file only covers Public and Indian Housing. More recent data are also available on these and other programs, as mentioned in "Data Availability." TYPES OF DATA & SOURCES Project number is in columns 1-8 and 2467-76. Total units, vacant units, minorities, elderly, & resident employees These are in columns 15-183, and come from HUD form 51235, which was supposed to be submitted every year with summary counts for each project as of June 30. Our file has the most recent data submitted for each project as of 1977, usually 1976 or 1977 (the year is indicated in 17-18). Hispanics who are also other minorities are counted only once, for example Black Hispanics are counted as Black or Hispanic, at local option. Newer Picture of Subsidized Households files would count them consistently as Hispanic. Household income, rent, composition, children, bedrooms, minorities, & age of head These are in columns 185-345, and come from HUD forms 51227 & 51245, which were required to be submitted every six months, with a line of information for each household moving in or being re-examined (to update its rent calculation; the data system was called Subsidized Housing Admissions and Continued Occupancy: SHACO). See the Data Availability, Microdata section for a source of copies of the paper forms. Our file has summaries of the data submitted for October 1976 through September 1977. Projects that did not report any households in that period have data fields filled with 9s. If TSTATE is 99, then nines in other fields mean missing data; otherwise nines in other fields are valid data. These data (in 185-345) are based on flows of households reporting, in contrast to the snapshots of the stock in columns 15-183. One can compare the minority summariesfrom the flows (in columns 319-30), to the snapshots for the same projects as of June 30 (in columns 96-119, as percent of columns 92-5) to see if the flows are representative of the snapshots. The same note about Hispanics above applies to all parts of the file. In the 1970s elderly households only needed to be re-examined every other year, so we give the records we have double weight in the summaries. The weighted total is 81%of occupied units, which is slightly better than current data (78% in 1996, 74% in 1997 for Public & Indian Housing combined). In columns 208-9 we have calculated the reporting rate in each project. See the further discussion of representativeness and weighting after the record layout. Financial statements These are in columns 346-2313, and come from HUD form 52599, which was (and still is) required to be submitted annually, for each housing agency's fiscal year. The form is available as a graphic image in a separate Word Perfect file. Each form typically covers many projects; often all the projects in an agency are on one form. Our file has averages, per unit per month, for 1971-76, where available. Within each year income is listed first, then expenses. These data are averaged for all projects with the same type of financing (owned, leased, etc.) in an agency. The averages are identical on multiple projects with the same financing in the same agency. Geographic codes These are in columns 9-12 & 2314-2466. They come from HUD administrative systems, maintained by HUD field staff at the time. Naturally they reflect geographic boundaries, such as HUD field offices, metropolitan areas and congressional districts from the 1970s. Wording This document is being released in 1997, and reflects the fashions of the times: data originally collected as Negro/Black, Spanish American, Disabled and Handicapped are now labelled as Black, Hispanic, and With Disabilities. However we keep another old term, Oriental, because its definition is much narrower than the current term, Asian & Pacific Islander: the instructions say Oriental includes only: "Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Filipino." (These instructions are on forms 51227 & 51245; we have not found instructions for form 51235, but when agencies completed 51235, their only source would have been the 51227 & 51245.) Note there were many fewer Southeast Asians in the United States then than now. They are not specifically listed in the definition of Oriental, so Housing Authorities may very well have put them in Other Minority, along with many Pacific Islanders. The term Other Minorities has instructions (same place): "Aleut, Eskimo, Hawaiian, Part Hawaiian, Polynesian, Micronesian and any others not included above." So some Alaska Natives are in Other Minority, and some in American Indian. The instructions (same place mentioned above) say to use "the group with which the family identifies itself. If the family does not identify itself, it shall be counted in the group that would most likely reflect the opinion of the head of the household." We have also kept the term Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA), instead of the current term Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), because these terms have precise, and different, definitions (see Bibliography for references to the definitions). You will need to interpret these terms with whatever words are current when you read this. DATA AVAILABILITY Copies of this data file (and more recent files) are available at www.huduser.org on Internet, or from hud user, PO Box 6091, Rockville, MD 20850, (800) 245-2691, (301) 519-5154, or tdd (800) 483-2209. The information here is neither private nor copyrighted and may be copied. When citing it, please include the title and publication date, July 1997. The file was created in the late 1970s (then called cdbout, Consolidated Data Base Output), and is being released to the public now (before the author retires) to allow the public to measure trends in these projects. The old file had some extra space in each record, which has now been removed, as documented in the layout. File Design. This file has one record for each Public & Indian Housing Project that appeared in the data files used in the 1970s (9,912 projects: 9,912 records, nearly 25 million characters after expansion). There are no summaries for housing agencies, states or other areas, so you are free to create your own summaries. Also there are no records for other subsidy programs. The records are identified by project number (in columns 1-8: AL001001; andcolumns 2467-76: AL 001 001) and place name (columns 2342-64). Project names and addresses are not included here, but can be picked up from the newer files. Matching with Newer Data. To find each project's name, address(es), and current data, you can match on project number with more recent files . A short name and address (12 characters each) are available, with data on current size of project, types of occupants, latitude, longitude, census tract, etc. in A Picture of Subsidized Households, for 1996 or 1997. (These records have blanks embedded in the project number, like AL 001 001, which you can match with columns 2467-76 of the older file.) Longer names, longer addresses, and extra addresses (for projects with more than one building or entrance) are available in Subsidized Housing Projects' Geographic Codes, form HUD-951 (where project number is called "matching group" and does not have blanks, so match on columns 1-8 of the older file). All these files are available at the phone number and Internet address given above. Microdata. Some of the information in this file was based on records for individual households. These records on 751,230 individual households reported (out of 1,174,000 occupied units) are still available for 1977 at HUD and at the National Archives, as Subsidized Housing Admissions and Continued Occupancy (SHACO). A similar file is available for 1974 with 760,161 records (not summarized here), and a much less complete file for 1979, with 188,658 records. The paper documentation available there includes copies of many of the blank forms listed here under "HUD DataCollection Forms," primarily those marked "f" or "l" here. Appreciation is due to all the households that provided information and to the many staff members at local agencies, HUD, and the Census Bureau who prepared the data on which this report is based. BIBLIOGRAPHY ON SUBSIDIZED TENANTS The order #, where given, is at HUD USER, 800-245-2691, 301-251-5154, TDD 800-877-8674. Within each section items are in chronological order. Related Data Files A Picture of Subsidized Households in the 1970s. Data file, www.huduser.org by Paul Burke. This has summary socio-economic data on subsidized households in Public & Indian Housing for each project in 1976-77. It also has budget data for individual line items of housing agencies' income & expenses in 1971-76. Family Data on Public & Indian Projects, 1993, order # AVI-27, by Paul Burke. gopher://huduser.org:73/11/2/f/famdata or www.huduser.org HUD, November 1993. This is an earlier version of A Picture of Subsidized Households, 1996, prepared on a comparable basis, also with data on individual projects & agencies. It excludes Section 8, FHA & Tax Credits. A Picture of Subsidized Households, 1996. 11 volumes & data file, order # HUD-7611 to HUD-7621, www.huduser.org/statedata/index.htm by Paul Burke. This has summary socio-economic data on subsidized households for the US, each State, each housing agency, project & Census tract (all tracts are in the data file, but only tracts with many subsidized units are in the books). It includes Public, Indian, Section 8, FHA & Tax Credit projects. It also includes geographic data such as latitude, longitude and zip code. Subsidized Housing Projects' Geographic Codes, form HUD-951, order # AVI-1004, gopher://huduser.org:73/11/2/f/shp or www.huduser.org/data.html HUD 1996. HUD project numbers with names and as many addresses per project as we could find; coded in early 1996 with: latitude, longitude, 9-digit Zip codes, Census block, tract, Congressional District, place, Minor Civil Division (town in New England) or Census Civil Division, County, MSA. More geographic detail than A Picture of Subsidized Households, 1996, but no data on occupants. Development and Analysis of the National Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Database, order # HUD-7306, AVI-60 www.huduser.org/lihtc/ HUD, 1996. Report analyzes data from 1992-94, but database goes back to 1987, when the program began. Includes some additional data on the same Tax Credit projects in A Picture of Subsidized Households, 1996. Basic Documents Housing in the Seventies order # HUD-968. GPO, 1974, especially chapter 4, "Suspended Subsidy Programs." SuDoc # HH1.2:H81/47 at government depository libraries Housing in the Seventies, Working Papers, 2 volumes, order # HUD-1429 and HUD-1430. GPO, 1976. SuDoc # HH1.2:H81/51V1-2 at government depository libraries Justification of the Estimates, volumes on Office of Housing, Office of Public & Indian Housing (formerly Office of Housing Management). HUD, Budget Office, annual.0 Statistical Yearbook 1966 to 1979. HUD & Government Printing Office. SuDoc # HH1.38:966 through HH1.38:979 at government depository libraries Programs of HUD. HUD, annual. Researcher's Guide to HUD Data order # HUD-223, second edition. HUD, July 1978, espeicially chapter 9, "Occupants of Subsidized & FHA Housing." Researcher's Guide to HUD Data order # HUD-3846, third edition. HUD, August 1984, especially chapters 8.3 and 9.3, "Data on Individual Tenants." Specialized Documents Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Revised Edition 1975 by Statistical Policy Division, Office of Management & Budget. GPO 1975. Criteria, definitions, lists of areas. SuDoc # PREX2.2:M56/975 at government depository libraries Lower Income Housing Assistance Program, order # HUD-817. HUD, 1978. "Analysis of the Data Quality of the Section 8 Tenant Characteristics Data Base," Office of Program Planning & Evaluation. HUD, San Francisco Regional Office May 1979. "Trends in Subsidized Housing 1974-1981", order # HUD-3034, by Paul Burke. HUD, March 1984. Recipient Housing in the Housing Voucher and Certificate Programs, order # HUD-5597, by Mireille Leger & Stephen Kennedy, Abt Associates. HUD, May 1990. Report on Subsidized Tenants," Appendix C in HUD Annual Report 1988. HUD, 1990. An earlier & very brief version of Characteristics of HUD-Assisted Renters and Their Units, based on the 1987 American Housing Survey. "Report on Subsidized Tenants," Appendix C in HUD Annual Report 1989. HUD, 1991. Data for selected samples in various areas, from the same database as this report, & from research samples. "Characteristics of HUD-Assisted Tenants," Appendix C in HUD Annual Report 1990. HUD, 1992. A very brief summary of Characteristics of HUD-Assisted Renters and Their Units, based on the 1989 American Housing Survey. Characteristics of HUD-Assisted Renters and Their Units in 1989, order # HUD-5961, by Connie Casey. HUD, March 1992. This has data (from sample interviews in the American Housing Survey) on the housing & neighborhood quality of the units people live in. Only about 33% complete for Public Housing and 50% complete for private subsidized projects, because of inability to match addresses. Similar books forthcoming for 1991 and 1993. "Revised Standards for Defining Metropolitan Areas in the 1990's" in Federal Register volume 55, 1990, March 30, p. 12154 (corrections published: April 10 p. 13357, April 30 p. 18055, and May 10 p. 19688) The Assessment of the HUD-Insured Multifamily Housing Stock, Final Report, v. 1, Current Status, order # HUD-6261, by James E. Wallace, Abt Associates, September 1993. Location and Racial Composition of Public Housing in the United States, order # HUD-6557, by John Goering, Ali Kamely & Todd Richardson. HUD, March 1995. Assisted Housing Quality Control, order # HUD-7219, by Suzanne Loux, Mary Sistek & Frank Wann. HUD, 1996. Measures errors in the form 50058 & 50059 data used in this report (though not using income matching todetect unreported sources of income). The largest dollar errors come from not getting income verifications on earnings & pensions, and, more surprisingly, not using verified amounts even when they are obtained. Net errors in rent average $4 underpayment per month per household. Housing Problems and Needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives, order # HUD-7173, by G. Thomas Kingsley, Maris Mikelsons & Carla Herbig, Urban Institute. HUD, May 1996.