Summary: In June 1977, a report recommended that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) could streamline its organization through consolidating its 77 field offices and realigning regional and field office functions. A proposed reorganization, which is expected to affect less than 10 percent of HUD field employees, is intended to modify the field structure and improve management. The proposed reorganization does not change the three-tier organizational structure. Under the proposed reorganization, regional offices are to supervise and evaluate area office management, mesh program and social goals, and provide regional representation. The central office will provide field offices with guidance on technical and program matters. In a cost-effective change, the regional and area offices in 8 of the 10 regional cities are to be colocated.
The reorganization is still in the implementation phase, but the implementation schedule has slipped; the movement of functions, responsibilities, and people has not begun; and specifics on who will move and where they will move are not firm. It is too soon to judge whether certain deficiencies have been corrected, but some observations can be made. HUD did not downgrade all offices warranting such action, is maintaining a field presence in nearly every location where it existed before, made a limited review of central office organization and staffing, did not include reorganization costs in its fiscal 1978 budget, will consolidate the multifamily insurance function, will reduce the regional offices' involvement in day-to-day program operations, is expecting to provide better coordination between housing and community planning and development programs, set program goals and objectives for 1978 that may be difficult to achieve due to the reorganization's implementation, and is retaining the 10 existing regional offices.
