Moving to Opportunity: Why, How, and What Next?

Mark D. Shroder, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Larry L. Orr, Johns Hopkins University

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

We discuss the policy background for the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) for Fair Housing demonstration experiment, the innovations in its design and implementation, and a few of the implications for future policy. We explain why a full-blown randomized experiment was necessary, in what ways MTO was unique, and whether the issues posed by concentrated poverty are the same today as when Congress first authorized the experiment.