Monitoring The Housing Allowance Program In St. Joseph County, Indiana: September 1974- March 1975: Housing Assistance Supply Experiment

This report describes community events, activities, and attitudes that may affect the experimental housing allowance program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or bear on research issues addressed by the Housing Assistance Supply Experiment (HASE). It covers the period prior to open enrollment in the allowance program in St. Joseph County, Indiana, including most of the preenrollment and all of the invitational enrollment periods.

The report first summarizes important events affecting the program, including the South Bend mayoral election, changes in the structure of county government, the "deactivation" of the St. Joseph County Housing Authority, an NAACP injunction threat, interaction with the South Bend Housing Authority, criticism by a local developer, and other complaints based primarily on misapprehensions about the program. It also describes the reactions of individuals and groups in South Bend to the program and assesses community opinions, confusion, and misinformation about it; evaluates program presentations made by the housing allowance office to community groups; and analyzes media reports.