Building 44

Federal agencies and the Obama transition | FULL COVERAGE »

"You are seeing the result of failed policies over the years that focused federal resources time after time on homeownership," said Sharon Wilson Geno, a housing expert and lawyer at the law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll. "They were starving the public housing program into near-nonexistence. It's like paying someone 81 or 82 cents for every $1 of their paycheck and telling them to live as they once lived."

The incoming administration also will find a $20 billion backlog of maintenance projects at public housing developments. If the repair list of old roofs, broken boilers and more is not addressed soon, some buildings risk permanent damage.

President Bush's HUD has been dogged by accusations of political cronyism. Alphonso R. Jackson resigned as secretary this year amid reports that he was under federal investigation for steering contracts to friends and business associates. The contracts were with housing authorities in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands.

At the same time, The Washington Post reported that Jackson's top aides allegedly had sought to cut funding from a Philadelphia housing authority whose director had refused Jackson's demand that it give property to one of his business friends.

In his letter to HUD employees, Obama agreed to appoint "a Secretary, Deputy and Assistant Secretaries who are committed to HUD's mission and capable of executing it."

After the agency's recent problems, Taylor said, he would argue that, while the FHA works with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on the foreclosure problem, the rest of HUD should return to its basic mission.

"My number one piece of advice for the next administration?" Taylor said. "The agency charged with housing should develop a federal housing policy. Believe it or not, there isn't one right now."