Place-Based Housing Investment and Spillover Effects on Local School Composition and Academic Outcomes

• In Event: Unpacking Place-Based Policies: Mechanisms, Spillovers, and Partnerships Shaping School Outcomes and Community Change Across Contexts

Abstract

Over the last three decades place-based approaches have played a central role in addressing concentrated poverty and housing quality in public housing developments. Such policies also have aimed to improve local resources, yet prior literature has been limited in assessing impacts on one of the most important community-based resources: local schools.

In this study, we used a combination of flexible conditional difference-in-differences models and multilevel modeling techniques to analyze spillover effects of public housing redevelopment via HOPE VI and the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative on school composition and academic outcomes. A novel 32-year school-level panel dataset (1991-2022) was created, which integrated housing-level, neighborhood-level, and school-level data to compare outcomes in schools located near public housing sites that received federal redevelopment funds to matched comparison sites.

Findings show significant fade-in effects on school-level poverty rates but no significant effects on school racial composition. Specifically, public housing redevelopment led to a 2.8 percentage point decline in school poverty at nearby schools 10 years post-completion. Effects were strongest in the most economically disadvantaged schools and in mixed-income conversions. With respect to math and reading proficiency, no main associations with short or long-term outcomes were found. However, moderation analyses revealed delayed negative associations with both math and reading achievement, such that 10 years post-completion, schools near developments which had converted to mixed income had 0.22 SD lower math proficiency scores and 0.24 SD lower reading proficiency scores relative to control schools. These findings are particularly surprising given expectations that mixed-income redevelopments would improve neighborhood school conditions. 

Together these findings suggest that public housing redevelopment decreased concentrated poverty in nearby schools, but also that demographic compositional changes alone are insufficient to generate broader institutional improvements. These patterns suggest that multiple intermediary mechanisms require further investigation. Results also indicate place-specific outcomes, underscoring the need for cross-sector collaboration between housing authorities and school districts to realize educational benefits and minimize unanticipated harmful consequences from housing redevelopment investments.

Author

• Lindsay Lanteri, Northeastern University
  Presenting Author