Since the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has submitted formal reports to Congress on worst case needs for rental housing assistance as new data have become available.1 These reports have drawn on data collected by the Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce, in the American Housing Survey (AHS) and in the decennial censuses. Since 1996, these reports have also included information from HUD administrative data about how well current housing assistance programs are serving families and individuals that otherwise would have worst case needs. Because respondents to surveys do not always accurately identify whether they receive assistance or the type of program through which they are assisted, program administrative data can provide more accurate information on the characteristics of assisted renters than are available from the AHS.
1 In 1990, the Senate Appropriations Committee directed HUD to "resume the annual compilation of a worst case housing needs survey of the United States." HUD had reported worst case housing needs to Congress during the 1980s on an informal basis, following a request from the Chair of the HUD Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
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