The Work of PD&R

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Policy Development

Drawing on its research and extensive program knowledge, PD&R advises the Secretary, the Deputy Secretary, and principal staff on program policy issues arising from the formulation of legislative and budget proposals, from regulatory responsibilities, and from other proposed major actions of the Department. Recent examples of PD&R' s policy advising role include providing data, analysis, and other input on issues such as regulatory and policy changes, as well as preparation of the Administration's annual budget and legislative proposals.

PD&R regularly interacts with the four primary HUD program offices and employs staff who are familiar with all of their programs. PD&R staff provides these offices with technical support, data, maps, and other materials relevant to their programs. Additionally, PD&R serves as a resource of information and institutional knowledge for divisions within the Secretary's Office, providing briefing materials and rapid responses for the Office of Public Affairs and the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations.

 

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Research

Using in-house staff and contractors, PD&R undertakes studies and issues reports on HUD programs to determine how well they are achieving their objectives and how they can be improved. The report Voucher Homeownership Assessment is an example of this type of effort.

PD&R also conducts studies and issues reports on housing and community development matters not tied directly to HUD programs. The guidebook Developing Successful Infill Housing is an example in this category.

Examples of major recent PD&R reports include:

Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Markets. This series of reports builds on the Housing Discrimination Study 2000, the most ambitious effort to date for measuring the extent of housing discrimination in the United States against people because of their race or color. The reports provide national estimates of discrimination that African Americans and Hispanics faced in 2000 and 2001 as they searched for housing in the sales and rental markets. The reports also provide an accurate measure of how housing discrimination has changed for these groups since 1989. Another report in this series will examine housing market discrimination that Native Americans face.

Housing Choice Voucher Location Patterns: Implications for Participant and Neighborhood Welfare. This study is the first to use HUD administrative data comprehensively to describe the location patterns of families participating in the Department's largest rental subsidy program, Housing Choice Voucher program. The study identifies central city and suburban locations, comparing where participants live with the locations of affordable housing. The report provides detailed information for the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the country.

Developing Successful Infill Housing. This practical guidebook provides guidance on how to develop infill housing in developed areas and includes information on assembling land, obtaining financing, planning and design, and navigating the regulatory approval process. It contains case studies on successful infill projects and describes how they were successfully accomplished.

 

 

Demonstration Projects

PD&R conducts a limited number of demonstration projects based on new program concepts. The purpose of the demonstrations is to test new programs systematically to determine if they have measurable impacts that can inform public policy. Current examples are the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) and the Jobs-Plus demonstrations, both addressing ways to bring families receiving HUD housing assistance to greater self-sufficiency. Key research findings detailing the performance of the MTO initiative were published in October 2003.

 

 

Data Collection, Analysis, and Dissemination

PD&R makes a major contribution to the body of housing research by analyzing, distributing, and maintaining nationwide databases on housing market and local economic conditions. In cooperation with the Census Bureau, PD&R produces the American Housing Survey, a biannual survey of the nation's housing market, as well as other surveys of housing markets. PD&R has created and maintains several important housing and urban databases, such as the Low-Income Housing Tax Creditdatabase and the State of the Cities Data Systems, which are available on our website, www.HUDUSER.org (part of a research information service and clearinghouse known as HUD USER that also offers Help Desk assistance at 1-800-245-2691). In addition, PD&R produces and distributes a public database on the mortgage purchase activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As part of its in-house research efforts, PD&R maintains numerous other databases on the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the mortgage market, and special segments of that market, such as subprime lending. PD&R also maintains extensive data on the characteristics of assisted housing tenants and voucher recipients. In-house analysis of these data has resulted in important policy recommendations by PD&R staff.

 

 

Conferences and Publications

Periodically, PD&R convenes conferences and seminars on housing and community development issues, often in conjunction with other HUD offices or outside organizations. PD&R brings scholars, decisionmakers, and advocates together in a variety of settings ranging from brown-bag seminars to major policy conferences. For example, PD&R, in conjunction with the America's Affordable Communities Initiative, a Department-wide effort to work with state and local governments to address regulatory barriers, hosted a national conference on regulatory barriers to affordable housing. The conference took place in April 2004 in Washington, DC, and brought together academics, practitioners, and government officials to review the impact of regulatory barriers on affordable housing and help plan for short- and long-term research to better understand and address this critical issue. The papers presented in conjunction with this conference will appear in an upcoming issue of PD&R's housing research journal Cityscape.

All research reports and studies that PD&R funds or prepares are available to the public in hard copy and electronic formats. Both versions can be obtained on www.HUDUSER.org. PD&R also publishes a number of periodicals, including our ResearchWorksnewsletter and U.S. Housing Market Conditions (a quarterly publication of housing and mortgage market conditions).

 

 

Guidelines for Preparing a Report

This guide was prepared in response to numerous inquiries received by PD&R's Research Utilization Division (RUD) from HUD staff and contractors about how to prepare reports for publication and about publication standards and guidelines. Compiled in a single volume that can be readily shared with others, the guide addresses a variety of topics designed to answer frequently asked questions. It goes through a typical report section by section, providing explanations, tips, and guidance on formatting and style. It provides suggestions for making publications ready for timely Web posting and offers helpful hints for those asked to prepare material based on research findings.

Although RUD's principal responsibility is the dissemination of PD&R's research results, it also ensures that PD&R's publications reflect HUD's graphic and industry standards, that they are appropriately formatted for printing, and that they are accessible on the Web as quickly as possible. Your help in preparing print-ready and Web-ready products will mean that we can spend more time making sure the results of PD&R research are available to those who can benefit from it.

We hope this publication is useful to you and your contractors. It is a work in progress. As technology and publication policies change, the contents will be updated. And, of course, we're always interested in your suggestions.

Download the full text of the guidelines in PDF format (400 KB).