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Struggling to stay out of high-poverty neighborhoods: housing choice and locations in moving to opportunity's first decade

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  • Xavier de Souza Briggs
  • Jennifer Comey
  • Gretchen Weismann

Abstract

Improving locational outcomes emerged as a major policy hope for the nation's largest low-income housing program over the past two decades, but a host of supply and demand-side barriers confront rental voucher users, leading to heated debate over the importance of choice versus constraint. In this context, we examine the Moving to Opportunity experiment's first decade, using a mixed-method approach. MTO families faced major barriers in tightening markets, yet diverse housing trajectories emerged, reflecting variation in: (a) willingness to trade location -- in particular, safety and avoidance of “ghetto” behavior -- to get larger, better housing units after initial relocation; (b) the distribution of neighborhood types in different metro areas; and (c) circumstances that produced many involuntary moves. Access to social networks or services “left behind” in poorer neighborhoods seldom drove moving decisions. Numerous moves were brokered by rental agents who provided shortcuts to willing landlords but thereby steered participants to particular neighborhoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Xavier de Souza Briggs & Jennifer Comey & Gretchen Weismann, 2010. "Struggling to stay out of high-poverty neighborhoods: housing choice and locations in moving to opportunity's first decade," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 383-427, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:houspd:v:20:y:2010:i:3:p:383-427
    DOI: 10.1080/10511481003788745
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    Cited by:

    1. Vincent J Reina & Ben Winter, 2019. "Safety net? The use of vouchers when a place-based rental subsidy ends," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(10), pages 2092-2111, August.
    2. April Jackson, 2020. "Three Local Organizing Strategies to Implement Place-Based School Integration Initiatives in a Mixed-Income Community," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Cassandra Johnson Gaither & Denzell A. Cross & G. Rebecca Dobbs, 2022. "Exploring Transiency in Four Urban Forest Patch Neighborhoods: Atlanta, Georgia, USA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-13, June.
    4. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Pierce, Gregory, 2017. "Car access and long-term poverty exposure: Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 92-100.
    5. Li, Mengying & Johnson, Sara B. & Newman, Sandra & Riley, Anne W., 2019. "Residential mobility and long-term exposure to neighborhood poverty among children born in poor families: A U.S. longitudinal cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 69-76.
    6. Li, Mengying & Johnson, Sara B. & Musci, Rashelle J. & Riley, Anne W., 2017. "Perceived neighborhood quality, family processes, and trajectories of child and adolescent externalizing behaviors in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 152-161.

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