Issue Brief: Voucher Recipients Enjoy Much Greater Choice About Where to Live Than Residents of Public Housing and Are Less Likely to be Concentrated in Distressed Neighborhoods

Authors: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development    

This report compares the housing choice voucher (formerly the Section 8 tenant-based program) and the public housing program in terms of their ability to provide access to housing in lower poverty neighborhoods. Using data from the Multifamily Tenant Characteristics System, the authors find that the housing choice voucher program offers tenants greater opportunity to live in less economically distressed neighborhoods. The authors also find that controlling for economic and demographic characteristics of public housing and Section 8 tenant-based households does not substantially change these results. The Issue Brief explains how the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) demonstration program is allowing researchers to study the impact of deconcentration on the welfare of low-income households.

Other Issue Briefs can be found under here.

Publication Categories: Publications     Affordable Housing     Public and Assisted Housing     Public Housing     Housing Choice Vouchers/Section 8 & Project-Based Section 8