Residential Mobility and Public Programs: Current Gaps Between Theory and Practice

Abstract

While residential mobility (the relocation of a household from one dwelling to another) is a fundamental element of the urban system at both individual and aggregate levels, and although there is a voluminous literature on mobility, the contribution of this literature to planning and public policy has been quite minimal. In earlier papers we examined some of the reasons for the poor links between academic research and public policy and outlined general approaches which might be taken to provide the kinds of information which would be useful to policy‐makers. In this paper we examine the effects of public programs on mobility and the ways in which mobility affects public programs. Public programs or policy are categorized as those having direct effects on mobility (the housing programs) and those with indirect effects (rent control and busing). Even though a significant proportion of the mobility that occurs in cities is simply not related to any government program, there is evidence that mobility may not be insensitive to policy manipulation. The provision of housing subsidies in Holland and local context variation (such as rent control) from city to city may have important effects on the levels of mobility. The results of this review and analysis emphasize that mobility is not a simple choice of moving or staying but one of a large number of options for achieving a change in individual status and therefore in the urban system.