HUD Scandals: Howling Headlines and Silent Fiascoes

Welfeld painstakingly tracks the pillaging of a good idea: federally subsidized housing. The scams are here--tax write-offs, depreciation, pork barrels, inflated prices, windfall profits and a postwar history that lead to the S&L scam. Although Welfeld, a senior analyst at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, attempts to make the book readable with light touches, he nonetheless leaves one puzzled over the welter of housing regulations that enable so many to plunder HUD funds. Instead of starting wth scandals of recent memory, at the outset he plops one into a muddle of regulations from the 1940s. When Welfeld tackles the current situation, though, he offers a seemingly sound plan to salvage HUD. (July)