The New ‘Man in the House’ Rules: Vouchers and the Criminalization of Housing Assistance

• In Event: 4332 - Welfare and Social Control

Abstract

While federal aid to the poor has traditionally focused on support for families, a central contradiction in these policies is the degree to which the state employs anti-family modes of welfare regulation and punishment (Gustafson 2011; Bridges 2017). Following Ocen (2012), I explore this contradiction in the realm of housing aid by examining the criminalization of Housing Choice Vouchers, the nation’s largest assistance program for low-income households. I show that voucher households are particularly vulnerable to eviction because of their efforts to maintain family. I trace these gendered and racialized vulnerabilities to two rules governing housing aid recipients: the first banning unauthorized tenants from residing in the home, and the second banning drug and crime related activity. Interviews with 39 voucher tenants show how, like welfare’s early ‘man in the house’ rules, the voucher program’s rules turn personal bonds into eviction liabilities. I document how voucher tenants are subject to a public-private policing environment which effectively replicates the regimes of scrutiny documented in welfare and health services. First, voucher renters report being surveilled by neighbors who file complaints with the local housing authority if they suspect tenants are housing unauthorized persons. Inspections triggered by such calls treat evidence of family visits as indicative of a lease violation, jeopardizing tenants’ vouchers. Second, I illustrate how prior criminal histories of family members also render their presence a liability. These pressures prevent some voucher households from having family members visit while forcing others to choose between housing aid and family cohesion if a family member is criminally charged. Finally, I theorize these dynamics as the federal housing assistance analog to the criminalization of welfare.

Author

• Rahim Kurwa, UIC