Public housing, home ownership, and community participation in Chicago's inner city

Abstract

Abstract The impact of public housing on the motivation of its tenants to engage in action to prevent its deterioration has been a topic of recent debate. This discussion has led some to advocate the sale of public housing to tenants as a means of giving them a stake in their community, and, thus, the motive to prevent its deterioration. By using the Urban Poverty Family Life Survey, this paper estimates the effects of public housing and home ownership on rates of community participation. The results do not support those who claim that residents of inner‐city public housing are less likely to become involved in community affairs than inner‐city home owners. The results also suggest that factors other than housing tenure status, such as church attendance, family structure, and the number of families known in the neighborhood are responsible for variation in rates of community participation. Taken together, these results stress the need to look beyond the simple causal relationship between community partici...