Rebuilding the Research Capacity at HUD (2008)

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Committee to Evaluate the Research Plan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Center for Economic, Governance, and International Studies Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education 

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS  500 Fifth Street, N.W.  Washington, DC 20001 NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Govern- ing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineer- ing, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropri- ate balance. This study was supported by Contract No. C-CHI-00865 between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Develop- ment. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organization or agencies that provided support for the project. International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-12567-3 International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-12567-7 Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); http://www.nap.edu. Copyright 2008 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Cover images © Getty Images. Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2008). Rebuilding the Research Capacity at HUD. Committee to Evaluate the Research Plan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Center for Economic, Governance, and International Studies, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. W ­ ashington, DC: The National Academies Press. 

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Committee TO EVALUATE THE RESEARCH PLAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT JOHN C. WEICHER (Chair), Center for Housing and Financial Markets, Hudson Institute, Washington, DC RAPHAEL BOSTIC, School of Policy, Planning, and Development, University of Southern California STEVEN M. CRAMER, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison PAUL FISETTE,* College of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Massachusetts GEORGE C. GALSTER, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Wayne State University MAYOR JEREMY HARRIS, Sustainable Cities Institute, Honolulu ROBERT B. HELMS, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, DC DOUGLAS S. MASSEY, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University SANDRA J. NEWMAN, Institute for Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University EDGAR O. OLSEN, Department of Economics, University of Virginia JOHN L. PALMER, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University JOHN M. QUIGLEY, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley MICHAEL A. STEGMAN, Program on Human and Community Development, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago MARGERY A. TURNER, Center on Metropolitan Housing and Communities, Urban Institute, Washington, DC BARNEY COHEN, Study Director RINA AVIRAM, Associate Program Officer ANTHONY S. MANN, Program Associate JACQUELINE R. SOVDE, Senior Program Assistant *Resigned August 2007.  



Acknowledgments This report reflects the efforts of many people, each of whom has contributed their time and expertise. No committee could perform a task such as this without the assistance and close cooperation of the staff of the Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). At the start of the project, the committee benefited greatly from briefings received from senior staff within PD&R particularly Assistant Secretary Darlene Williams as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary (retired) Harold Bunce, Office of Economic Affairs; Deputy Assistant Secretary (retired) Paul Gatons, Office of Research, Evaluation, and Monitoring; and Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Schroder, Office of Policy Development. Throughout the project, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research, Evaluation, and Monitor- ing Kevin Neary served as the main point of contact between the commit- tee and PD&R. Throughout the project, Kevin provided superb support, always responding to the committee’s requests for additional information with great dedication, responsibility, and good humor. The committee also appreciates the useful assistance and insight of other PD&R staff includ- ing David Chase, David Engel, Robert Gray, Todd Richardson, Ronald Sepanik, and David Vandenbroucke. In April 2007, the committee organized a public workshop and ben- efited greatly from the assistance and insight of many colleagues including: Mark Calabria, minority staff, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; Amy Cutts, deputy chief economist, Freddie Mac; Karen Daly, director, Office of Policy Development and Coordination; Douglas Duncan, chief economist, Mortgage Bankers Association; Paul Emrath, assistant staff vice president of Housing Policy Research, National Association of vii 

viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Home Builders; Warren Friedman, director, Planning and Standards Divi- sion, Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control; Deborah Gross, deputy director, Council of Large Public Housing Authorities; Elizabeth Kong, deputy assistant secretary, Office of Policy, Programs, and Legisla- tive Initiatives; Victor Lambert, senior program analyst, Office of Policy, Programs, and Legislative Initiatives; Judith May, director, Office of Evalu- ation; Jonathon Miller, majority staff, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee; Susan Offutt, chief economist, Government Account- ability Office (former head of Economic Research Service, U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture); Charles Orlebeke, professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago (former assistant secretary for policy development and research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD]); Danilo Pelletiere, research director, National Low Income Housing Coali- tion; Christopher Spear, Honeywell International (former assistant sec- retary of labor, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Labor); Lawrence Thompson, retired (former general deputy assistant secretary, PD&R, HUD; and Lawrence Yun, managing director of Quantitative Research, National Association of Realtors. The committee also appreciates the use- ful assistance and insight it received from other colleagues during its delib- erations particularly: Philip Clay, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Paul Fisette, University of Massachusetts; David Gibbons, minority staff, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Ser- vices, and Education; Jon Kamarck, minority staff, Senate Subcommittee on Transportation-HUD Appropriations; Michael H. Moskow, retired chief executive officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Joseph Riley, retired, Office of Economic Affairs, PD&R; and Barbara Sard, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Several members of the staff of the National Academies made sig- nificant contributions to the report. The committee was established under the auspices of the Center for Economic, Government, and International S ­ tudies, directed by Jane Ross, who was instrumental in developing the study and provided guidance and support to the staff throughout the p ­ roject. Particular thanks are due to Barney Cohen, who served as the study director, Rina Aviram for superb research assistance, Anthony Mann and Jacqui Sovde for logistical support, Kirsten Sampson Snyder for help guid- ing the report through review, Eugenia Grohman for skillful editing, and Yvonne Wise for managing the production process. This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that assist the institution in making its report as sound as possible, and to ensure that the report meets institutional stan- 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix dards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. The committee wishes to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: James Follain, Department of Economics, Siena C ­ ollege; Edward Glaeser, Department of Economics, Harvard University; Jill Khadduri, Housing and Community Revitalization, Social & Economic Policy, Abt Associates, Inc., Bethesda, MD; Stephen Malpezzi, Depart- ment of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, University of ­Wisconsin- M ­ adison; Kathy O’Regan, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University; Charles Orlebeke, professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago; Susan Wachter, Institute for Urban Research, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania; and Dan Wheat, Civil, Architectural, Environmental Engineering Department, University of Texas at Austin. Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive com- ments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions and recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Susan Hanson, School of Geography, Clark University. Appointed by the NRC, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was car- ried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all the review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution. I close by expressing my great appreciation to my fellow committee members. This report results from the exceptional efforts of the members of the committee, all of whom had many other responsibilities but who nonetheless generously gave much of their time and their expertise to the project. They developed the framework of the report and then wrote, revised, and commented on successive drafts. The report is very much a collaborative effort, and it has been a personal pleasure for me to work with such fine colleagues. John C. Weicher, Chair Committee to Evaluate the Research Plan of the Department of Housing and Urban Development 



Contents Executive Summary 1 1 Introduction 5 2 Background 11 3 Evaluation of External Research 33 4 Evaluation of Technology Research 65 5 Evaluation of In-House Research 79 6 Evaluation of Policy Development and Program Support 93 7 Evaluation of Public-Use Data Sets 113 8 Dissemination 139 9 The Relationship Between Research and Policy Development 149 10 Loss of Capacity and Its Consequences 179 11 Vision for the Future: Recommendations 187 References 201 Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff 215 Acronyms 221 xi