Impact Findings from the Supporting Moves to Opportunity Housing Mobility Demonstration in Milwaukee and St. Louis

• In Event: Housing Mobility Programs for Families with Housing Choice Vouchers: Impact Findings

Abstract

The success of the Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) demonstration in Seattle and King County, Washington, which supported families newly offered Housing Choice Vouchers striving to lease rental housing in areas of relatively higher regional economic opportunity, raised new and important questions about the replicability and scalability of similar program models. A successor housing mobility demonstration, called Supporting Moves to Opportunity (SMTO), led by MDRC with support from national and local foundations and from Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights, provided funded and assistance to organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and St. Louis, Missouri between late 2020 and early 2023 with the goal of offering services patterned after those tested in CMTO to both existing and new admissions voucher holders at five public housing agencies (PHAs) in those two regions. These programs were subject to experimental evaluation by MDRC. This presentation will share a preview of the impacts of mobility program service offers to families searching in these two regions. Our presentation will also highlight select findings on family participation in the mobility programs and on program implementation to contextualize the impact findings, including ways in which service delivery in the SMTO programs differed from the services offered via CMTO.

Author

• Jonathan Bigelow, MDRC
  Presenting Author