University Economics Prof. Edgar O. Olsen presented testimony on low-income housing on Capitol Hill yesterday. Olsen spoke before the House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census.
Olsen proposed the institution of a voucher-based system that would provide low-income housing without an increased cost to taxpayers as opposed to current housing project initiatives, economics department chair David Mills said.
"Professor Olsen's approach is intended to provide more choices for low-income families," University spokesperson Carol Wood said. "It could serve hundreds of thousands of additional families at no additional cost."
According to Olsen's testimony, the voucher program would give housing agencies equal amounts of federal dollars and lands. Housing agencies would also have the added benefit of receiving money from selling their current properties and renting those properties at competitive prices.
"You know economists are fond of saying, 'There is no such thing as a free lunch,' but Olsen has found a free lunch in public housing," Mills said. "There is a way to provide [low-income housing occupants] somewhat better housing at lower cost to the public -- that's what I mean by a 'free lunch.'"
The implementation of Olsen's recommendation would give low-income housing occupants more options for living accommodations, Mills said.
"So instead of people who require housing assistance all living together in a single complex in which the government is their landlord, they can opt for any other apartment or house they can rent, that they can afford," he said. "They can go out and they can rent where you live or where I live if they have sufficient income and the voucher subsidizes their income but they have to spend the voucher on housing."
Olsen's work with numerous presidential administrations gives his proposal added clout, Mills said.
"Olsen has done research in government housing programs for almost his entire career, for decades, and he probably knows more about government housing programs than any economist in the country," Mills said.
Mills added that he agreed with Olsen's economic rationale and with his housing proposal.
"He [was] invited to make his argument, and to this economist his argument is absolutely compelling," Mills said.
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