Housing Mobility Programs for Families with Housing Choice Vouchers: Impact Findings

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel will bring together impact findings from three separate, but closely-related, evaluations of housing mobility programs for families in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.

Nationwide, about 2.4 million families participate in the HCV program, HUD’s largest rental assistance program. Approximately 910,000 of these families have children (HUD, 2023). Most families in the HCV program (HCV families) have tenant-based vouchers and can choose to live in any qualifying rental unit they find on the private market, as long as the owner is willing to participate in the HCV program. In light of evidence that the neighborhood in which a child grows up affects the child’s earnings and educational attainment as a young adult (Chetty and Hendren, 2018), significant policy attention has focused on whether families with children participating in the HCV program can be assisted to move to areas (often called “opportunity areas” or “high opportunity areas”) that will provide a strong foundation for children’s future economic and educational achievement.

Three recent demonstrations (two of which are ongoing) have tested the extent to which packages of services offered to families in the HCV program have been able to assist the families in moving to opportunity areas. These demonstrations are:

·        The Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) project, a multi-phase random assignment evaluation conducted in Seattle and King County, Washington;

·        The Supporting Moves to Opportunity (SMTO) demonstration, a random assignment evaluation conducted in Milwaukee and St. Louis; and

·        The Community Choice Demonstration, a congressionally-mandated, random assignment evaluation conducted in 8 metropolitan areas (Cleveland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Pittsburgh, and Rochester).

The panel will begin with a paper that discusses how housing mobility programs have identified opportunity areas and highlights important choices that need to be made based on the local housing market and policies of the local public housing agency. Then the next three papers will present impact findings from the three demonstrations, as well as implementation details to provide context for the impact estimates. Collectively, the presentations for this panel will be based on housing mobility programs in 11 U.S. metropolitan areas. We expect that the discussion will center on factors that may have caused the observed variation in the impacts of the programs. These factors may include local housing markets, historic patterns of racial discrimination, policies of public housing agencies, and variation of features and implementation of the programs. We hope that these closely-related presentations will allow audience members to delve deeply into this topic.

Policy Area

• Housing, Community Development, and Urban Policy

Chair

• Asaph Glosser, King County Housing Authority

Discussant

• Sarah Oppenheimer, Harvard University

Organizer

• Daniel B Gubits, Abt Global

Individual Presentations

• Opportunity Areas in Mobility Programs from Gautreaux to Today - Presenting Author: Samuel Dastrup, Abt Global

• Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO): Reducing Barriers to High-Opportunity Neighborhoods Through Navigator Support - Presenting Author: Jacqueline Groccia, Johns Hopkins University

• Impact Findings from the Supporting Moves to Opportunity Housing Mobility Demonstration in Milwaukee and St. Louis - Presenting Author: Jonathan Bigelow, MDRC

• Early Impacts on Moves to Opportunity Areas from the Community Choice Demonstration Rapid Cycle Evaluation - Non-Presenting Co-Author: Adam Silver Travis, Abt Global; Presenting Author: Daniel B Gubits, Abt Global