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Evaluating Cohort #4 of the Moving to Work Demonstration Program Expansion: An Evaluation of Asset Building for HUD-Assisted Households

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Evaluating the Expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) Demonstration Program

An Evaluation of Asset Building for HUD-Assisted Households

MTW agencies in the Asset Building Cohort (ABC) will develop and provide an asset building program. HUD offered participating PHAs three options: (1) an opt-out savings account, (2) reporting rent payments of public housing residents to credit bureaus, and (3) a PHA-designed option. The idea behind the opt-out savings account is to help families build a small emergency fund. Reporting rent payments to credit agencies gives households an opportunity to build credit by using a monthly payment they are already making to create a new tradeline. As of this writing in August of 2023, 17 PHAs are participating in the ABC. Ten PHAs intend to offer an opt-out savings account to at least 25 households and six plan to report rent payments to credit bureaus for at least 25 households.

ABC PHAs must collaborate with HUD’s evaluation of the asset building programs. For PHAs participating in the opt-out savings account program, this will require random selection of households to receive the program. For PHAs implementing rent reporting, it will require assisting HUD’s research contractors to recruit volunteers from among public housing residents and randomly assign volunteers to one of the following two conditions: (1) have rental payments reported to credit bureaus for 24 months (the treatment group), or (2) don’t have rental payments reported to credit bureaus for 24 months (the control group). This approach allows us to determine the impact on credit scores of public housing residents of reporting rental payments to credit agencies.

You can find more information about the specific types of asset building programs implemented by ABC PHAs here.


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Research Design: Evaluation of Asset Building for HUD-Assisted Households

HUD’s evaluation of the MTW asset building programs has multiple parts:

  1. Site visits at PHAs to understand how they implemented the asset building programs and to learn from their experiences
  2. A survey of households participating in the opt-out savings account program and a comparison group of households not participating
  3. A randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of reporting rent to credit bureaus on the credit scores of public housing residents
  4. A longitudinal, qualitative panel of households participating in the rent reporting program to learn about how participants understand rent reporting in the context of their life circumstances and their financial situations

HUD anticipates the evaluation will begin in September of 2023 and that households will enroll in the asset building programs between October of 2023 and January of 2024 and remain in the program for 24 months. The evaluation should wrap up several months after the end of the programs.

The Research Design and the Data Collection and Analysis Plan for this study are not yet available.


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Reports will be posted as they become available.


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