Community Development: Comprehensive Approaches and Local Flexibility Issues

GAO discussed the proposed Local Empowerment and Flexibility Act of 1995. GAO noted that: (1) community development experts believe that comprehensive community development approaches help address the problems in distressed neighborhoods; (2) community organizations have gained experience and the infrastructure needed to provide funding and technical assistance, but these organizations are faced with managing diverse housing, economic development, and social science programs; (3) federal agencies do not coordinate their missions with other agencies and worry about losing control of their resources; and (4) several agenices would face resource burdens similar to those under the Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Communities program in administering the provisions of the proposed act.