Voucher Households Research Articles

Editor's Letter

Editor-in-Chief Max J. Skidmore discusses Volume 5, Issue 3, of Poverty and Public Policy, the third quarterly issue of 2013. It is a pleasure to bring to you Volume 5, Issue 3, of Poverty and Public Policy. The journal now has passed the halfway mark of its fifth volume, and continues to attract favorable commentary worldwide. This issue's lead article is by Sharon S. Van Zandt and Pratik C. Mhatre, both of Texas A&M University. They write on “The Effect of Housing Choice Voucher Households on Neighborhood Crime” and study longitudinal evidence from Dallas, Texas. Their conclusion is important: Voucher holders are not the cause of increases in crime. Next, from the International University for Graduate Studies, Bassaterre, St. Kitts, comes Robert Adolf's article, “Economic Globalization, Inequality, Social Safety Nets, and the Size and Scope of Government in East and Southeast Asia,” which calls into question the conventional wisdom regarding the relationship between open economies and their relationships to social safety nets as well as governmental size and power. Next, as a feature article, is my own “‘Bipartisanship’ as a Detriment to Anti-Poverty Efforts: Some Contrarian Comments,” in which I examine the manner in which the notions of “centrism” and bipartisanship have been warped to serve the purposes of those hostile to social programs. This is one of two articles remaining from those that originated as papers that were to have been presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in New Orleans (the meeting was cancelled due to the threat from Hurricane Isaac; the other papers may be found in earlier issues of Volume 5). The Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy Caucus's panel on Poverty and Public Policy, and the Policy Studies Organization's panel on Promoting the General Welfare were the relevant panels. As indicated in the previous issues of Volume 5, papers from these panels would have been considered for the journal in any event, but the cancellation of the conference made it more important that they be considered for publication. Although our normal process had to be modified somewhat, we were careful to ensure that those selected for publication were subjected to an obligatory and rigorous peer review. The final one of the papers from the aborted APSA meeting follows next as another feature article. It is by Andrew Cline of Missouri State University, who crosses a number of disciplinary boundaries, especially rhetorical analysis and political science. Dr. Cline examines the Constitution of the United States in “Understanding the Preamble as a Rhetorical Context for Political Action.” He discusses the need to address poverty by concentrating upon the Constitution's meaning for contemporary society. Our review section in this issue is a rich one. It contains a review essay and two important reviews. In the essay, “Social Security and Its Discontents,” I include a review of a remarkable, and remarkably comprehensive, new book, Eric Laursen's The People's Pension. Rika L. Peterson of the University of South Dakota reviews The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. Finally, Afia B. Yamoah of Hope College reviews Fighting Poverty Together: Rethinking Strategies for Business, Governments, and Civil Society to Reduce Poverty by Aneel Karnani. As always, we seek thoughtful reviews of relevant books, and invite those who are interested in becoming reviewers to communicate with our Book Review Editor, Dr. Virginia Beard, at beard@hope.edu. Max J. Skidmore Editor-in-Chief University of Missouri–Kansas City

The Impact of Housing Vouchers on Crime in US Cities and Suburbs

This paper tests the common belief that subsidised housing contributes to higher crime rates. To do this, panel data on over 200 US cities are used and fixed effects models are estimated to control for unobserved differences between cities that may affect both voucher use and crime. Additionally, models are estimated that focus on the suburbs, to see if the steady increase in vouchers there has had any effect on crime. In cities, it is found that vouchers have a weak, negative relationship with violent crime rates, although these estimates are not particularly robust. In suburban areas, there is no observed relationship between vouchers and crime, suggesting that controversies in those communities blaming voucher households for elevated crime rates are misguided.

Housing Choice Vouchers and Crime in Charlotte, NC

Recent media attention and research have focused on the effect of housing vouchers on crime, with different conclusions. The purpose of this study is to bring further evidence to the voucher–crime debate, using annual data from 2000 to 2009 for Charlotte-Mecklenburg County. We study the relationship between crime counts and housing vouchers with quantile regression models with year and census tract fixed effects. We found that voucher households are associated with increased crime, controlling for past crime levels. Estimates vary, however, with the concentration of vouchers in the neighborhood, with little impact in areas with low concentrations. Estimates also vary with the neighborhood crime level. We extend the literature by examining the effect of different voucher family types, finding no evidence that elderly households or nonelderly households without disabilities and without children are associated with more crime. However, we found a very significant positive association for nonelderly households without disabilities with children. Our results indicate that significant crime reductions could be accomplished by focusing U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, local housing agency, and criminal justice resources on the types of places and voucher families most at risk for crime problems when a family uses a voucher to move into a new neighborhood.

Cash or Coupons? Testing the Impacts of Cash versus Vouchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Despite the increased use of conditional and unconditional cash-transfer programs worldwide, a majority of social protection programs in both developed and developing countries use in-kind transfers and vouchers. This paper reports the results of a randomized evaluation of an unconditional cash transfer and voucher program in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that has been plagued by intense civil war for much of the past two decades. In response to the devastating conflict, a number of international organizations have used cash and vouchers to assist internally displaced populations. While the value of the voucher was less than the household’s normal total food expenditures (infra-marginal), voucher households purchased more food items than they would have otherwise had they been provided with cash (extra-marginal). There was also no evidence that cash-transfer households were using their transfers for temptation goods. The differences in purchases did not lead to differential improvements in food security, household coping strategies, or asset ownership between the two groups. However, cash-transfer households were able to save a portion of their transfer, and the cash-transfer program was more cost effective for the implementing agency. These results suggest that unconditional cash transfers can be a more efficient means of improving outcomes for extremely vulnerable populations, even in failed states. However, access to markets for goods and services is a necessary precondition for cash-transfer programs to succeed.

American murder mystery revisited: do housing voucher households cause crime?

Potential neighbors often express worries that Housing Choice Voucher holders heighten crime. Yet, no research systematically examines the link between the presence of voucher holders in a neighborhood and crime. Our article aims to do just this, using longitudinal, neighborhood-level crime, and voucher utilization data in 10 large US cities. We test whether the presence of additional voucher holders leads to elevated crime, controlling for neighborhood fixed effects, time-varying neighborhood characteristics, and trends in the broader sub-city area in which the neighborhood is located. In brief, crime tends to be higher in census tracts with more voucher households, but that positive relationship becomes insignificant after we control for unobserved differences across census tracts and falls further when we control for trends in the broader area. We find far more evidence for an alternative causal story; voucher use in a neighborhood tends to increase in tracts that have seen increases in crime, suggesting that voucher holders tend to move into neighborhoods where crime is elevated.

American Murder Mystery Revisited: Do Housing Voucher Households Cause Crime?

Potential neighbors often express worries that Housing Choice Voucher holders heighten crime. Yet no research systematically examines the link between the presence of voucher holders in a neighborhood and crime. Our paper aims to do just this, using longitudinal, neighborhood-level crime and voucher utilization data in 10 large U.S. cities. We test whether the presence of additional voucher holders leads to elevated rates of crime, controlling for neighborhood fixed effects, time-varying neighborhood characteristics, and trends in the broader sub-city area in which the neighborhood is located. In brief, crime tends to be higher in census tracts with more voucher households, but that positive relationship becomes insignificant after we control for unobserved differences across census tracts and falls further when we control for trends in the broader area. We find far more evidence for the reverse causal story; voucher use in a neighborhood increases in tracts with rising crime, suggesting that voucher holders tend to move into neighborhoods where crime rates are increasing.

A different lens: administrative perspectives on portability in Illinois' Housing Choice Voucher Program

Over the last decade, the Housing Choice Voucher Program has grown to become the USA's primary strategy for providing safe, decent, and affordable housing. Annually serving more than 2 million low-income households, the program is designed to help low-income households afford private market rental housing. The program also allows for the “portability” of vouchers nationally between housing authority jurisdictions. Both features aim to mitigate the effects of concentrated poverty. Research on the Moving to Opportunity Program and the Gautreaux consent decree have produced data confirming that residential mobility can at times lead to positive opportunities for assisted households. This past research has been conducted on specific programs occurring outside of the general Housing Choice Voucher Program framework and has focused on household-level outcomes, paying little attention to the ways in which program administration may affect outcomes for voucher households. This article aims to understand voucher portability from the perspective of housing authority executive directors and program administrators, in order to better understand how program administration impacts the types of household outcomes observed in prior research. The results reveal that housing authority administrative practices and inter-housing authority relationships play a significant role in shaping the types of outcomes realized by porting voucher households. These findings suggest several changes to program administrative design and policy that may improve support for voucher households as they make portability moves.

Strategies to increase smoke alarm use in high-risk households.

A 3-year project was undertaken to evaluate two methods of promoting residential smoke alarm installation and maintenance in high risk households across the U.S. Five states (Arkansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and North Carolina) participated. The two strategies under study were direct installation of smoke alarms and distribution of a voucher for free smoke alarms. The target population included occupants of high-risk households without working smoke alarms who were approached as part of a door-to-door canvassing program. Fire Safety education was provided to both groups. A follow up assessment conducted 6-12 months post intervention assessed the presence and functional status of smoke alarms in each of the two groups. Demographic and fire safety data were also collected at baseline and follow up for each group. 4,455 households were enrolled in the study [Installation Group: 2,206 (49.5%), Voucher Group: 2,249 (50.5%)]. Baseline characteristics of the groups within each state were comparable. Follow up data was obtained on 1,583 installation group households and 1,545 voucher group households. At follow up, 1,421 (89.8%) households in the installation group had working smoke alarms, compared with 997 (65%) households in the voucher group, Odds Ratio 4.82 (95% CI=3.97, 5.85) (p <.0001). On average, 47% of all households enrolled in the voucher group did not redeem their vouchers (range 26-63%). Direct installation of alarms by program staff resulted in working smoke alarms in 90% of households receiving the direct installation intervention. Only 65% of voucher households had functioning alarms at follow up, largely due to failure to redeem vouchers.

Housing Vouchers and Certificates as a Vehicle for Deconcentrating the Poor

The authors analyze the census tract location of over 11,000 certificate and voucher households in Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, and compare those to the distribution of public housing and various other project-based subsidized housing developments such as Section 236. They find evidence that household mobility programs may be succeeding in the goal of dispersing affordable housing opportunities beyond the central-city boundary, but they also find evidence that market forces and personal choices may lead toward reconcentration of suburban voucher and certificate holders in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status and higher proportions of minorities.