By Marcie Geffner

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has some advice for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): Develop a plan, develop another plan, and adopt a formal approach.

That’s a summary of the recommendations in a new GAO study, “Affordable Housing in Transit-Oriented Development: Key Practices that Could Enhance Recent Collaboration Efforts Between DOT-FTA and HUD.”

The study advises the two federal agencies to:

• “Develop and publish an implementation plan for interagency efforts to promote affordable housing in transit-oriented development.”
• “Develop a plan to ensure that data collected on the various programs of the agencies related to affordable housing and transits are sufficient to measure the agencies’ performance toward goals and outcomes.”
• “Adopt a formal approach to encourage further collaboration in promoting affordable housing in transit-oriented developments.”

In addition to those rather predictable government-ese recommendations, the 66-page study also offers some other observations and insights. Here’s a sampling:

• Few state or local programs help local providers develop affordable housing in transit-oriented developments. Programs that do exist mainly offer developers financial incentives to encourage such objectives. Moreover, state and local governments generally don’t “use incentives in their local land use regulations or building codes to promote affordable housing in transit-oriented developments.” Instead, such incentives tend to “promote affordable housing without regard to location,” according to the GAO’s conversations with local officials. Requirements that state and local agencies integrate housing and transportation in land-use planning are “minimal,” a fact that some officials cite as a barrier to larger objectives.

• A few HUD programs offer incentives to build affordable housing “near transit, but not specifically in transit-oriented developments.” For example, a program funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that makes grants to help localities deal with abandoned foreclosed properties awards additional points to transit-accessible projects.

• Local housing and transit agencies are “generally unaware” of a collaboration between HUD and the DOT’s Federal Transit Authority (FTA). HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and DOT Secretary Ray LaHood announced the collaboration and a task force charged with certain strategic initiatives in March.

• Plans for transit stations and transit-oriented developments generally increase nearby land and housing values, according to studies the GAO reviewed. But the increase may be modest and depends on other factors such as retail development, neighborhood characteristics, proximity to job centers, pedestrian amenities, and the quality or frequency of transit service. Higher land and housing values can limit the availability of affordable housing units and “stifle development” of such housing near transit. Crime, a poor economic environment, and non-transit-oriented land uses tend to have an adverse effect on land and housing value, despite plans for transit stations or transit-oriented development.

• “The introduction of light rail…paired with longer-term focused investment of HUD affordable housing and revitalization dollars” has helped to make affordable housing more available near transit stations. Yet concerns have been voiced that rents in these locations eventually will rise and that will put financial pressure on low-income residents.

The GAO’s ability to analyze affordable housing and transit-oriented development and make conclusions was hindered by “a lack of direct research, incomplete data and factors unique to each transit station.” The agency repeatedly recommends that more focus be placed on data collection relative to these issues.