Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) on the Geographic, Socio-economic, and Public Policy Periphery: A Critical Case Study of Blocked Mobility in the City of San Diego, California

Abstract

This article examines the geographic and socio-economic distribution of housing choice vouchers (HCVs) in the city of San Diego, California. It focuses on how the concentration of HCVs on geographic, socio-economic, and public policy peripheries forms a nexus that limits housing options for low-income residents. The analysis is based on a unique database that combines three datasets. One includes data for 13,973 individual HCV recipients measuring head of household characteristics (race, Hispanic ethnicity, gender, and age) and housing unit characteristics (unit size, rents, public subsidy levels). Another data set includes population and housing characteristics at the ZIP code level from the American Community Survey (ACS). The third data set includes small area fair market rents (SAFMRs) for ZIP codes and fair market rents (FMRs) for metropolitan San Diego. Data are displayed using GIS and analyzed using logistic hierarchical regression models. The results indicated that the public housing authority (PHA) that administers HCVs in the city of San Diego implemented the HCV program in a manner that reinforced the concentration of program participants in low-income areas and impeded moves to higher opportunity areas. The results expand our understanding of how geography, socio-economics, and public policy shape the production and reproduction of the periphery.