The 1960s marked an enormous expansion of subsidies for housing production, the targeting of benefits to low- and moderate-income families, and an attempt to make private enterprise the primary means of providing subsidized shelter.

From 1961 to 1973 subsidized housing grew from 460,000 units to more than 1.5 million units, and for the first time subsidies were based on income. In addition, the new housing programs were specifically designed to encourage private ownership of assisted units, although public rental housing continued to receive support and to expand. Not until 1969 and the passage of the Brooke Amendment did public housing open up to the poorest families. The Brooke Amendment limited rent paid by public housing residents to 25 percent of their household income. Also for the first time, tax policy was used to enhance the economic reward to investors in the production of low- and moderate-income housing. Tax-exempt bonds were authorized to finance privately developed units leased by local public housing authorities, and rapid depreciation schedules for low-income housing were introduced into the tax code.

Ford Foundation Programs

The Ford Foundation's entry into the housing field began in earnest in 1960 with the Great City School Improvement program and the Gray Areas program. This roughly coincided with passage of federal legislation allowing direct support for nonprofit housing developers. Two principal Foundation interests emerged. The first was a commitment to "increasing the supply of decent shelter for the housing-deprived—the low- and modest-income families who cannot acquire proper homes without government aid." This objective would be pursued largely through support for Community Development Corporations (cdcs). The second concern focused on open housing, with the Foundation committed to eliminating discrimination from housing production and distribution. A prime example of that commitment was the Foundation's support for the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing (ncdh), an umbrella group of national civic, religious, labor, and minority organizations. The first grant to ncdh, for $243,000, was in 1966. Since then the Foundation has granted it more than $7 million.

In 1964, in an effort to increase the supply of decent housing, the Foundation granted $575,000 to Urban America (later called the Nonprofit Housing Center). That marked the Foundation's decision to assist local