Partnership Projects

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal programs supporting public-private partnerships in housing and community development. GAO found that: (1) 9 cabinet-level departments and 7 independent agencies administered a total of 46 federal programs supporting public-private partnerships in housing and community development, with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) managing 19 programs; (2) 20 programs addressed housing purposes, 25 addressed community development purposes, and 1 addressed both purposes; (3) 15 programs used project grants to support partnership projects, while other programs used formula grants, loan guarantees, and technical or advisory services; (4) 30 programs used state and local governments as mediating agents to apply for financial assistance; (5) 22 programs targeted families and individuals, and 17 targeted communities; (6) most target populations had low- or moderate-incomes; and (7) data limitations made it difficult to evaluate public-private partnerships in terms of the national total of such partnerships, the amount of federal dollars appropriated for such projects, federal monitoring of investments, partnership organizational structures and their effectiveness, and overall partnership effectiveness.