Improving Section 8 Rental Assistance

This article reviews the tortuous process of implementing the findings of a series of evaluation studies of the Lower Income Housing Assistance Program (Section 8) to alter the program's structure. To understand the process, the role of the Research Office in HUD's policy process and the pressures for program improvement external to the agency are reviewed, as are the evaluation findings themselves. The actual "translation" process— involving actors from the office administering the program, the Research Office, the Secretary's staff, and the Department's principals-is then recounted. The article concludes with some notes on the inertia of the policy process; inertia that remained even though the conditions for change seemed propitious.