units are so affected. Unexpectedly, however, the study also found that an additional 280,000 units are on shaky financial ground and are likely to default over the next fifteen years. The latter finding sounded a clear alarm about the state of subsidized housing.

Rural housing projects face similar mortgage prepayment problems. A study similar to the one above might yield equally interesting information.

Of the 5 million subsidized housing units nationwide, a substantial percentage are owned by nonprofit developers. No comprehensive data have been compiled to record the number or location of these units, which income groups are served by them, or the history of their development.

In 1987 the Foundation sponsored research by the Urban Institute on the overlap between housing and welfare services. This study discovered that the welfare system provides more than $10 billion annually for the housing needs of the poor through its implicit and explicit housing allowances. This exceeded the hud budget for assisted housing, which was less than $8 billion. Thus, in dollar terms, the Department of Health and Human Services (hhs) has become just as important as hud in providing for the housing needs of the poor. These findings suggest that greater coordination between the two departments might prove beneficial to the poor. The Urban Institute has published one book on this topic and is expected to produce another in 1990.