have efforts been initiated to systematically record their accomplishments. For instance, a report by the Community Development Research Center, supported by the Foundation, develops one of the few statistical profiles of cdcs. However, much remains to be done in this area. Little systematic work has been done to identify successful projects and the key elements of their success. Currently, there are few ways to disseminate technical information about innovative projects. Although many studies are undertaken each year on housing in general, only a handful consider the special needs of low-income families.

In addition, the fundamental assumptions underlying housing policy have rarely been scrutinized. There is a dearth of basic data about the effect of housing deprivation on poor families, and little information that would help forecast future housing needs of low-income families, future prices for lower-cost units, or the impact of rising prices on the quality of housing occupied by the poor.

Foundation-supported research emphasizes issues and topics that are most important from a policy perspective. Following are examples of research that has been sponsored, is under way, or is planned with Foundation assistance.

• In 1988 the Foundation joined with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation to bring together twenty-three senior housing scholars to analyze key issues. Organized by the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, this project resulted in a series of symposia and papers that span the range of low-income housing topics, for example, vouchers vs. grants for production; housing and the homeless; public housing; and the overlap between housing and welfare assistance. James Rouse and David Maxwell, co-chairs of the 1988 National Housing Task Force, drew on these papers in making recommendations about future policy directions.

• Hundreds of thousands of rental units were built under programs established twenty years ago. The mortgages on many of these units are now eligible to be prepaid. Once they are paid the owners are released from their obligation to rent to low-income tenants. Immediately after the expiration of one such mortgage, in Dallas, several thousand units were targeted for demolition to make way for an office development. To find out how many units are similarly threatened nationwide, the Foundation made a grant to the National Low Income Housing Preservation Commission in 1988. The results of that study indicated that approximately 250,000