Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Final Impacts Evaluation

Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Final Impacts Evaluation

HUD recently released the “Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration Final Impacts Evaluation.” The final report details the findings of a 15-year, experimental study that examined the effects of moving from public housing developments to neighborhoods with lower poverty rates on adults and children in five U.S. cities. The research measured outcomes related to mobility, neighborhood and housing conditions, social networks, mental and physical health, economic self-sufficiency, risky and criminal behavior, and educational attainment.

Overall, the demonstration shows that housing vouchers provide expanded access to neighborhoods where poverty rates are lower and residents feel safer. In addition, women in the program who moved to neighborhoods with poverty rates less than 10 percent (the “experimental group”) were less likely to develop diabetes and extreme obesity compared to women in the control group who were not given vouchers to move. Moving did not result in less reliance on public assistance or improved economic outcomes, nor did it improve educational attainment in children.