Housing Choice Voucher Research Articles

“It Takes a While to Get Used to”: The Costs of Redeeming Public Benefits

AbstractScholars have examined how administrative burden creates barriers to accessing public benefits but have primarily focused on the challenges of claiming benefits. Less is known about the difficulties beneficiaries face when using public benefits, especially voucher-based public assistance programs. I argue that the costs of learning how to redeem benefits can discourage program use and undermine policy goals. To enrich the administrative burden framework, this study draws from a qualitative analysis of 43 participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to develop a new subset of learning costs—redemption costs. I argue that two conditions: limited portability and reliance on third-party agents create redemption costs for beneficiaries. I apply these two conditions to two other voucher-based programs: the Housing Choice Voucher Program and the Child Care Subsidy. Examining redemption costs can help clarify when and where beneficiaries experience burdens, reasons behind discontinuity in program participation, and why public programs fail to meet objectives.

As Parcerias Público-Privadas no âmbito dos programas de habitação social

Resumo Diante do déficit habitacional, a gestão pública de diversos países procura atender a demanda por moradia a partir de parcerias com a iniciativa privada. Neste contexto, o artigo tem como objetivo compreender e comparar a aplicabilidade das Parcerias Público-Privadas (PPPs) no Brasil e Estados Unidos, através de estudos de caso do Programa Parceria Público-Privada Habitacional em São Paulo e do Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program em Nova York. Utiliza-se o Método Arquitetura Dialógica, que relaciona o objeto de estudo com seu contexto. Para a análise comparativa de ambos os programas foram utilizados os seguintes parâmetros: a) legislação e normativa; b) agentes envolvidos; c) beneficiários; d) financiamento ou auxílio para locação da unidade de habitação; e) localização dos empreendimentos ou da oferta das unidades; f) tipologias de habitação. Os resultados mostram que ambos os programas apresentam potencialidades e restrições quanto ao emprego das PPPs para a oferta de habitação à população de baixa renda. A pesquisa contribui com os estudos sobre habitação social através das PPPs.

The New Man in the House Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers Turns Personal Bonds Into Eviction Liabilities

ABSTRACT Whereas 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 antifamily modes of regulation and punishment, a finding consistent across welfare, health, and child services. I extend this analysis to Housing Choice Vouchers, the nation’s largest rental assistance program. Interviews with voucher renters show how, like welfare’s early man in the house rules, the public–private regulation of the program turns personal bonds into eviction liabilities. I trace these vulnerabilities to two rules: one banning unauthorized tenants from residing in the home, and another banning drug- and crime-related activity. After documenting how the enforcement of these rules forces tenants to choose between family and housing, I suggest that these dynamics illustrate similarities between the punitive regulation of housing and other safety net programs.

Extreme Heat Vulnerability of Subsidized Housing Residents in California

ABSTRACT Extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of mortality in the United States, but there is little evidence about how this climate hazard affects residents of different housing types. In this study, we examine whether Californians living in subsidized housing are more vulnerable to extreme heat than those living in unsubsidized housing. We create a tract-level data set combining housing characteristics, downscaled climate projections, and an index of adaptive capacity and sensitivity to heat. We analyze exposure and vulnerability to heat by housing type and location. We find that subsidized housing is disproportionately located in the hottest tracts that simultaneously also have the most sensitive populations and barriers to adaptation (high-high tracts). Whereas 8% of California’s housing units are in high-high tracts, these tracts contain 16% of public housing units, 14% of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit units, and 10% of Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers. Our findings indicate the need for targeted housing and land-use policy interventions to reduce heat vulnerability.

No Easy Decisions: Developing an Evidence-Informed Process to Allocate Housing Choice Vouchers to Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

ABSTRACT This article describes the development of an evidence-informed screening tool and process to allocate 25 Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) to homeless and unstably housed survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) through an innovative pilot program called SASH (Survivors Achieving Stable Housing). Informed by empirical and community-defined evidence, the screening tool comprised two forms, a survivor self-referral form and a form completed by a domestic violence (DV) advocate on the survivor’s behalf. Responses were scored such that higher scores indicated fewer barriers to the SASH definition of housing success (i.e., to lease up with and maintain an HCV). We received 92 applications, primarily from survivors living in DV shelters. Of those, 31 were excluded; the remaining 61 were randomized into either the voucher or the queue group. Survivors needed considerable advocacy from the SASH team to move through the public housing authority application process as well as financial assistance to lease up. Lessons learned during the SASH project have important implications for DV and housing practitioners, especially those involved in developing coordinated entry procedures. These lessons include the utility and feasibility of screening questions and tools, moral dilemmas of resource allocation, and challenges of working across siloed systems and policies.

Neighborhood Opportunity and Satisfaction Among Housing Choice Voucher Recipients: A Subjective Well-Being Perspective

ABSTRACT This study analyzes how different neighborhood opportunity characteristics are associated with Housing Choice Voucher recipients’ subjective well-being, as measured by neighborhood satisfaction. We focus on this topic because subjective well-being is linked to a variety of important outcomes, such as health, productivity, and social relationships. Thus, a complete understanding of how opportunity neighborhoods impact low-income households’ lives requires consideration of subjective well-being. Relying on a sample of Housing Choice Voucher recipients living in Charlotte, North Carolina, we find that neighborhood opportunity indicators are not strong predictors of neighborhood satisfaction after controlling for perceptions of neighborhood conditions and household composition. This result suggests that mobility to opportunity neighborhoods may not result in corresponding increases in neighborhood satisfaction and, thus, subjective well-being.

Association of Childhood Asthma With Federal Rental Assistance

Millions of low-income children in the United States reside in substandard or unaffordable housing. Relieving these burdens may be associated with changes in asthma outcomes. To examine whether participation in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) rental assistance programs is associated with childhood asthma outcomes and to examine whether associations varied by program type (public housing, multifamily housing, or housing choice vouchers). This survey study used data from the nationally representative National Health Interview Survey linked to administrative housing assistance records from January 1, 1999, to December 31, 2014. A total of 2992 children aged 0 to 17 years who were currently receiving rental assistance or would enter a rental assistance program within 2 years of survey interview were included. Data analysis was performed from January 15, 2018, to August 31, 2019. Participation in rental assistance provided by HUD. Ever been diagnosed with asthma, 12-month history of asthma attack, and 12-month history of visiting an emergency department for the treatment of asthma among program participants vs those waiting to enter a program. Overall participation was examined, and participation in public or multifamily housing was compared with participation in housing choice vouchers. This study included 2992 children who were currently participating in a HUD program or would enter a program within 2 years. Among children with an asthma attack in the past year, participation in a rental assistance program was associated with a reduced use of emergency departments for asthma of 18.2 percentage points (95% CI, -29.7 to -6.6 percentage points). Associations were only found after entrance into a program, suggesting that they were not confounded by time-varying factors. Statistically significant results were found for participation in public or multifamily housing (percentage point change, -36.6; 95% CI, -54.8 to -18.4) but not housing choice vouchers (percentage point change, -7.2; 95% CI, -24.6 to 10.3). No statistically significant evidence of changes in asthma attacks was found (percentage point change, -2.7; 95% CI, -12.3 to 7.0 percentage points). Results for asthma diagnosis were smaller and only significant at the 10% level (-4.3; 95% CI, -8.8 to 0.2 percentage points). Among children with a recent asthma attack, rental assistance was associated with less emergency department use. These results may have important implications for the well-being of low-income families and health care system costs.

To Whom Do Housing Policies Provide Stable Housing? Examining Housing Assistance Recipients and Leavers

By analyzing the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data combined with the Assisted Housing Database, this study explores the associations between the five statuses related to receiving or leaving from a certain type of housing assistance and the subsequent housing instability experience. These statuses include households that (1) reside in a public or project-based subsidized housing (PH) unit, (2) leave a PH unit, (3) receive a Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), (4) withdraw from the HCV program, and (5) are unsubsidized but income-eligible to receive housing assistance. The results reveal that, although all subsidized households tend to experience less housing instability than do income-eligible, unsubsidized households, HCV recipients are relatively more likely to experience housing instability than are PH residents. In addition, the likelihood of experiencing housing instability among PH and HCV leavers does not differ significantly from the likelihood among the unsubsidized households, suggesting that they may leave their programs prematurely.

OPPOSING AND POLICING RACIAL INTEGRATION

AbstractOver fifty years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act, how have mechanisms of residential segregation changed? Using a case study of a Los Angeles suburb’s reaction to Black movement through the federal Housing Choice Voucher program, I argue that policing should be considered among the contemporary forces of residential segregation. Through interviews with forty-three local residents, I show how one community’s reaction to voucher movement spans from attitudes to actions. First, I document widespread hostility towards Black voucher holders on the basis of their race, gender, and participation in the voucher program. Second, I trace how the city’s municipal code changes have responded to public sentiment and created an incentive to participate in policing. By attaching fines and incentives for landlords to evict tenants to broadly written and subjective nuisance codes, the city has created a pathway by which local residents can pressure unwanted neighbors out of the community. Third, I illustrate how some residents engage in participatory policing by surveilling neighbors they believe are using vouchers and dispatching city and police agencies to inspect, fine, and possibly evict these targets. These findings illustrate how communities can use policing to racially segregate space, how eviction might be communally produced, and how local opposition to Black movement breaks the pathway between residential mobility and socio-economic gains that underlies the voucher program.

Evaluating School Quality of Housing Choice Voucher Recipients

Evaluating School Quality of Housing Choice Voucher Recipients

The Benefits of Converting HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program to an EBT System

The Benefits of Converting HUD's Housing Choice Voucher Program to an EBT System

Characteristics of HUD-Assisted Renters and Their Units in 2017

The 2017 American Housing Survey (AHS) included a supplemental survey of rental units receiving subsidies from programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau used addresses provided by HUD to identify other units in its regular AHS sample that are subsidized by HUD. Together, the 2017 AHS supplemental and regular samples contained 4,728 assisted units. This report uses information on those units to characterize the 4.5 million rental units assisted by HUD in 2017. In addition, this report uses information from previous address-matched efforts to analyze how the HUD-assisted rental stock has changed over the last three decades. From 1991 to 2017, the number of HUD-assisted units increased by 12 percent, or approximately 500,000 units. HUD’s program mix has changed substantially as the Housing Choice Voucher program expanded its share from 26 percent of the assisted stock in 1989 to 48 percent in 2017. Overall the HUD-assisted stock is in fairly good condition, with only 2.3 percent of units severely inadequate in 2017, about the same as unassisted units occupied by very low-income renters.

Do Housing Vouchers Improve Academic Performance? Evidence from New York City

AbstractThe Housing Choice Voucher program is currently the largest federally funded housing assistance program. Although the program aims to provide housing assistance, it also could affect children's educational outcomes by stabilizing their families, enabling them to move to better homes, neighborhoods, and schools, and increasing their disposable incomes. Using data from New York City, the nation's largest school district, we examine whether—and to what extent—housing vouchers improve educational outcomes for students whose families receive them. We match over 88,000 school‐age voucher recipients to longitudinal public school records and estimate the impact of vouchers on academic performance through a comparison of students’ performance on standardized tests after voucher receipt to their pre‐voucher performance. We exploit the conditionally random timing of voucher receipt to estimate a causal model. Results indicate that students in voucher households perform 0.05 standard deviations better in both English Language Arts and Mathematics in the years after they receive a voucher. We see significant racial differences in impacts, with small or no gains for black students but significant gains for Hispanic, Asian, and white students. Impacts appear to be driven largely by reduced rent burdens, increased disposable income, or a greater sense of residential security.

The Rent Reform Demonstration: Interim Findings on Implementation, Work, and Other Outcomes

The purpose of the Rent Reform Demonstration is to test an alternative to the current rent-setting system for families using housing choice vouchers (HCV). The goals of the alternative rent-setting model now being tested are to incentivize employment and reduce the complexity and burden (and, thus, the cost) of administering the rent policy, while not causing unnecessary hardship for HCV households. The demonstration began enrolling voucher holders in 2015 and is operating in four cities at four local Moving to Work (MTW) public housing agencies (PHAs) sites with 6,600 participating HCV assisted households using a rigorous random assignment design. The four participating PHAs are the District of Columbia Housing Authority, Lexington Housing Authority, Louisville Metropolitan Housing Authority, and San Antonio Housing Authority. The current report presents interim results (covering more than 2 years of followup) on the new rent policy’s effects, or “impacts,” on families’ labor market and housing-related outcomes, receipt of other government benefits, and use of homelessness services. It also uses indepth qualitative interviews with PHA staff and tenants to explore their experiences with and views of the new policy. (A companion report that presents findings covering 12 to 18 months of follow-up, “Early Effects,” is being released under its own cover.) The results indicate that, when the findings for all four PHAs are combined, the new policy did not generate statistically significant increases in tenants’ average earnings during the available followup period. The story varied substantially across locations, however, with some positive effects on earnings in Lexington and San Antonio, but not in Louisville and Washington, D.C. The report also presents other impacts on housing subsidies, tenure in the voucher program, receipt of other government benefits, PHA administrative costs, and PHA and tenant experiences with the alternative rent model.

주거복지정책 유형별 주거비 부담수준 결정요인 분석 : 공공임대주택 거주가구와 주거급여 수급가구의 비교연구

주거복지정책 유형별 주거비 부담수준 결정요인 분석 : 공공임대주택 거주가구와 주거급여 수급가구의 비교연구

Household Energy Costs and the Housing Choice Voucher Program: Do Utility Allowances Pay the Bills?

ABSTRACTUtility bills present a hidden threat to the affordability of a family’s housing—unknown before a household moves into a unit, and unpredictable from one month to the next. In theory, tenants receiving Housing Choice Vouchers are shielded from energy cost burdens through utility allowances built into rent subsidies. However, tenants may face actual energy costs that far outstrip allowances, effectively rendering their housing unaffordable. This study compares utility allowances with electric bills for over 19,000 Housing Choice Voucher households in four Florida cities and identifies household and unit characteristics associated with excessive costs. Nearly half of tenants in the sample faced bills in excess of posted allowances, with households renting single-family homes particularly at risk. On the other hand, state-sponsored affordable housing developments, such as those subsidized by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, offered voucher tenants the chance to live in modern units with lower energy use and a better fit between costs and the utility allowance. The findings have implications for housing authorities and tenants seeking to reduce energy cost burdens.

Neighborhood walkability for subsidized households: Revisiting neighborhood environments of Housing Choice Voucher and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit households

Scholars and planners have emphasized the importance of the living environments provided to marginalized families by subsidized housing. Many previous studies have focused primarily on the socio-demographics environments of subsidized housing, but it remains unknown if subsidized housing programs facilitate disadvantaged populations' access to walkable environments. Furthermore, little attention has been devoted to the potential differences in walkability of the environments provided by tenant-based programs such as Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), and project-based programs like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). This study examined the spatial distribution of HCV and LIHTC housing units and their environmental attributes in the American city of Austin, Texas. Binary logistic regression models were used to estimate various walkable environments around subsidized households. We found that the walkability characteristics varied between the two subsidized housing programs. HCV households were mostly in neighborhoods with high accessibility to amenities and significant sidewalk completeness, but had low densities of crosswalks and transit stops. Meanwhile, LIHTC households were principally found in census block groups characterized by poor sidewalk completeness. Other walkability features, such as the Street Smart Walk Score and the crosswalk density, were not significantly related to neighborhoods containing LIHTC households. These findings will help planning practitioners understand the spatial attributes of subsidized households and better improve their neighborhood walkability.

Promoting Work and Self-Sufficiency for Housing Voucher Recipients: Early Findings From the Family Self-Sufficiency Program Evaluation

In 2012, HUD commissioned a national random assignment evaluation of the Family-Self Sufficiency (FSS) program’s impacts on labor market and other quality of life outcomes for households receiving Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs). The FSS program has two key components: i) funding for Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to support case managers who work with participant households to develop individualized self-sufficiency plans and access other community services, and ii) funding to support savings and asset development via interest-bearing escrow accounts redeemable upon graduation from the program, generally after 5 years of FSS program participation. This report examines FSS program implementation, participants’ engagement in the program, and program impacts on labor force participation and government benefits receipt in the first 24 months after program enrollment. The evaluation finds that while FSS increased participation in a range of employment-related services and support services by a statistically significant 13 percentage points, participants in the FSS program did not increase employment rates or average earnings in the first 2 years, but did experience small shifts from part-time to full-time employment.

Do Small Area Fair Market Rents Reduce Racial Disparities in the Voucher Program?

ABSTRACTA lawsuit that argued that the method used to calculate rent limits in the Housing Choice Voucher Program promoted racial segregation in Dallas, Texas, resulted in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development developing zip code-based voucher rent limits in Dallas in 2011. This rent calculation approach was then expanded to five other demonstration sites in 2012. This article analyzes whether adjusting voucher rent limits reduces a minority household’s likelihood of living in a high-minority neighborhood, improves their likelihood of living in a higher opportunity neighborhood, and reduces the disparity in location outcomes between minority and White households in the voucher program. This article finds evidence of improvements in the location outcomes of Black and Hispanic voucher households because of the use of zip code-based rent limits, but that these results are only marginal with respect to the persistent disparities in outcomes based on race within the voucher program.

Exploring the relationship between housing choice vouchers and neighborhood housing dynamics in Louisville, Kentucky

ABSTRACTSince the inception of the housing choice voucher (HCV) program, extensive research has focused on large metropolitan areas serving as demonstration sites for federal programs and concerning the impacts of dispersal on the residents and the types of neighborhoods where residents choose to locate. Little attention has been given to medium and small cities. Our analysis focuses on a medium-sized city, Louisville, Kentucky. We focus on the 170 census tracts of Louisville to examine the variations in neighborhood housing dynamics (i.e., median assessed housing values (MAVs), number of housing code violations, number of foreclosures, and crime rates) and the concentration of HCVs. Our findings indicate a significant negative relationship between census tracts with a greater concentration of HCV units and MAVs as well as a positive relationship with foreclosures. We find that HCVs have no impact on housing code violations or crime rates. A split regression analysis, however, shows that the presence of HCVs does not have a negative impact on the top half of Louisville’s neighborhoods with high property values. Finally, we show that HCVs, which are intended to deconcentrate poverty, concentrate poverty more in neighborhoods that already have a majority of low-income residents.